


Inner Demons (Mafia!AU)

by popushikuru



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Yakuza, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Slow Burn, Yakuza
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-29
Updated: 2020-08-10
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:33:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 39,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24442141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/popushikuru/pseuds/popushikuru
Summary: The white-haired man suddenly stops walking and simply points at Azumi with an outstretched finger. Her face pales and her heart plummets. She’s unable to swallow the thick saliva in her mouth. She feels nailed to her seat by his finger. He looks like a beast. A beast targeting his prey.The white-haired man starts to walk towards her in large strides. With each step, he makes the ground rumble letting everyone know he is coming. A beast of that size has a ravenous appetite. An appetite for pain and blood.--When Azumi is attacked on her way home from school, she finds herself relying on friends she never thought she’d see again.
Relationships: Kageyama Tobio/Original Female Character(s), Kuroo Tetsurou/Original Female Character(s), Tsukishima Kei/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 19





	1. Fear

“Hey, wake up Azumi-chan.”

Miyuki Azumi lifts her hand and tries to swat away the voice.

“Azumi-chan, class is over you idiot. Wake up”

Azumi jerks awake and sits up with bulging eyes. There’s no way class just ended. She had just put her head down for a second during the break so she could focus on the last two hours of class.

“You’re such an idiot. You should just sleep properly at night. Its counter-productive to re-learn everything on your own when you could just stay awake in class. I’m not always going to give you my notes y’know.”

Azumi groans as she pulls her black long hair out of her face. _He’s right,_ she thought. _But I’ve never had an easy time sleeping at night since forever._ She rubs her tired eyes with her knuckles, yawns and puts her laptop in her bag.

“Sorry Tsai-kun, I’ll sleep properly tonight. Thanks for waking me up”

“Well I have a meeting with my club now so I’m going to head out first,” He turns his head to look at her as he starts to walk away. His brows furrow and his outstretched finger points at Azumi. “Don’t forget we’re meeting Sota-kun tonight at the bar. Don’t leave me and my boy hanging like last time,” he grins.

Azumi chuckles and brushes him off with her hand, gesturing him to get going already. “Yeah, yeah, I know. See you tonight.”

“See ya!”

Tsai turns the rest of body to face the direction he’s heading and runs off down the hall. Despite bumping shoulders with multiple people, he quickly disappears in the crowd of people. _Damn_ , _I really owe that guy,_ Azumi thought. She starts to contemplate her life decision in pursuing more school. As if a bachelor’s in chemical engineering wasn’t enough school for her already.

As she continues to walk down the hallway, she quickly uses the front-facing camera on her phone to check if she has any dried drool left on the side of her mouth. She rubs the evidence of her sleep with her hand and takes a quick look at the rest of her face. There are bags under her tired hazel eyes and her long hair looks especially oily and messy today. She cringes seeing at her disgusting image, putting her phone in her pocket and quickly tying her hair into a messy bun.

She exits the building and frowns at the setting sun. She spends so many hours indoors that she only gets to see an orange sun. Despite the sunset, campus is still populated and busy. The sidewalks are full of students making their way across campus. The nearest benches in sight are occupied by lovers, friends or the occasional reader enjoying literature outdoors.

Azumi wants to head home quickly today to get some work done before meeting Tsai and Sota tonight. She keeps her head down while she walks. The sound of students chattering begins to fade the closer she reaches the edge of campus. The last two years, she’s lived off-campus because she prefers the quiet neighborhood unpopulated by loud students. It works out because the places further away are also cheaper.

Her eyes dart to the side by the sudden movement of two squirrels running by. In her peripherals, she notices a large man in a white and teal jacket walking behind her with his hands in his pockets. Aside from the jacket, his hair sticks out the most. It’s blonde but his bangs are black and are pulled up in three sections _. His hair reminds me of a rooster with his bangs sticking up like that_ , she chuckles to herself.

She notices the sky losing its’ pink and orange shades and starts to adopt blacks and greys. She’s far away enough from campus that there are only a few stragglers further down the sidewalk. It is no longer a bright, busy evening and now becoming a silent and eerie night. The darkness and sudden gust of wind makes her shiver. _Maybe I’ll call Mom so I’m not stuck with the creepy man behind me,_ she thinks.

She reaches into her pocket for her phone and dials the number she’s memorized since she was little. It rings a few times and goes to voicemail. She sighs _, she probably forgot to bring her phone grocery shopping again._

She puts her phone back in her pocket and notices a light brown-haired man walking towards her. _His white and teal jacket looks oddly similar to the rooster guy behind me…_ Azumi thinks. She glances behind her and this time, rooster head is looking right at her. Azumi’s eyes narrow and she decides to suddenly cross the street.

_If they follow me, this is bad news. If they don’t, I’m just overreacting._

She glances behind her. Rooster head has also crossed the street and now he’s only a couple feet from her. He makes eye contact with her again but this time he has a nasty smirk on his face. The other man also crosses the street and is now a few feet in front of her.

“What do you want from me?” Her sharp voice cutting through the silent evening. She glares at the man in front of her.

“Wow, someone’s got their panties in a twist. Chill out, missy.”

Azumi turns and glares at the rooster guy.

“Well, why don’t you tell me why you fuckers are following me?”  
  
“Feisty isn’t she, Kogane?” sneers the brown-haired man. He takes a few steps closer to her.

“Guess she could actually be useful, huh Futakuchi. With that body and that attitude, I’m sure she could work wonders” Kogane smirks.

Azumi cringes at the double meaning of his statement. She glares at the man called Kogane. She swallows giving herself a moment to build up her confidence. “You’re all talk aren’t you?” She runs her eyes up and down to take a look at him. “You sure are a big guy with a tiny ass dick.”

The man called Futakuchi holds back a chuckle. “Well, she definitely has more fire in her than her dad. Guy ran with his tail between his legs as soon as he had a chance,” he states in an amused tone.

Azumi visibly stiffens. She feels the blood drain from her face and develops cold sweat in her clenched fists. She had a feeling she knew who these men were. She was really hoping she’d be wrong.

Futakuchi now has a dark look on his face as he looks directly at Azumi.

“We gave him the easy route he always wanted,” he shrugs. “He’s lucky all he got was a bullet to the head,” he sneers, staring intently at Azumi’s face for a reaction.

Azumi grinds her teeth but maintains a stoic face. _I can’t let them think his death bothers me. It really doesn’t,_ she tells herself. _I definitely can’t let them know I’m scared shitless right now either. How am I going to win a fight against two large men?_

Suddenly, Kogane runs forward, crouches and sweeps his leg to knock Azumi over from behind her. He has a look of shock plastered on his face when he doesn’t make contact with anything and sees Azumi leap into the air, giving him a quick glance before kicking Futakuchi right in the chest. Fukatuchi stumbles backwards in shock and clutches his chest.

Azumi lands in a crouch with a satisfying smirk as she looks at Futakuchi’s dropped jaw. Kogane grabs her arm and swings her over his shoulder. She lands hard on her back and blinks several times to get rid of the stars obscuring her vision. She shrugs off her bag with a frown. _Well fuck me. I probably need to get a new laptop._ She gets up quickly and turns to face the two large men.

“You surprised us, you wench. But you won’t get away with it another time” Kogane’s cold voice makes her shudder.

Azumi’s blood is pumping rapidly through her body and she notices her hands trembling. Despite the hit, she is alert and rapidly thinking of a plan of escape. She doesn’t know if these two idiots are the only ones Date Tech has sent after her, but she knows she needs to plan as if they aren’t. They’re both big, which is a problem. But, it’s also their weakness. She’s smaller, smarter and more agile.

Her hands stop trembling and with her newfound confidence, she smirks. “Watch me.”

Kogane growls as he pulls out a pocket staff and extends if to its maximum length. He charges at her with a yell.

_Shit, that’s going to hurt if it hits me._

He swings at her head. Azumi manages to dodge it, but the sound of the staff cutting through the air sends chills through her body. Upon his moment of surprise from swinging at nothing yet again, she lands a kick right at his groin. He drops the staff upon impact and immediately grabs his damaged goods.

“You cunt!!” he angrily cries out.

She takes the staff and jabs it down right into his foot, feeling and hearing bones cracking. His screams make her ears ring. To be safe, she does a roundhouse kick and nails her foot right in his cheek. The large man falls unconscious and thuds on the pavement.

She’s grateful to her body for still remembering how to fight, but she knows she’s only landing her blows because of Kogane’s stupidity and pride.

As she stands over Kogane’s unconscious body, her right side suddenly erupts in pain and she vaguely feels her feet leave the ground. The impact of the blow on her petite body throws her several feet and she rolls into a stop. She notices her hands bleeding from her attempt to brace the impact with the ground and feels her face sting from the pavement scratching her face. She starts to taste the bitter taste of iron building up in her mouth. But what hurt most were her ribs. _Fuck… that bastard probably fractured some of my ribs. I need to get this over with. Fast._

She manages to roll onto her back to glare at her offender. She snarls at a smirking Futakuchi looking down on her.

“Looks like the wench only has eyes for you Kogane. She completely forgot I’m here!”

He reaches down and tightly wraps his fingers around her throat. He lifts her with ease and the pain in her abdomen flares from being moved. She’s forced onto the tips of her toes and starts to struggle to breathe. Her fingers scratch at his hands, eyes bulging from the lack of oxygen.

He taunts her with something but she can’t make it out. Her mind is working desperately to figure out how to escape from her situation. _I can’t die like this_ , _I can’t give up_. Her eyes bulge when she notices the knife strapped to his forearm. She starts to see stars and her vision starts to blacken. She lets go of his hands and pulls the dagger from his forearm, and jabs blindly at his neck.

Kutakuchi screams and drops her, a hand clutching his neck. She stumbles to her hands and knees and looks up at her opponent. Due to her restricted vision of being withheld of oxygen for too long, she realizes she missed her intended target and stabbed him closer to the collar instead.

His blood spurts out and he drops to his knees. “You fucking bitch!” he screams.

Azumi stumbles to her feet and limps over to the pocket staff by Kogane’s unconscious body. Each step makes her ribs hurt tremendously and her body trembles in response. Her bloody hand shakes excessively from pain, fear or both. She forces a smirk as she turns around to face her offender. “Surprise bitch. Got you assholes again,” she gloats with a wink. With a weapon in each hand, she runs away.

She was seriously going to start crying from the pain in her ribs. She curses her opponents’ size and their strength. _I need to get away. I need to get away. I’ll go back to campus. It’s crowded, I can hide in the crowds._ _The Yakuza doesn’t operate in public, open spaces right?_ She collapses the pocket staff and tucks it in the back pocket of her jeans. _I’ll keep holding the knife just in case,_ hiding it in her sleeve.

She makes it to campus and starts to hobble. She runs to the closest residence and into the cafeteria. She abruptly drops into a seat at a table with three girls. Her arrival startles them and they stare at her in confusion.

“Sorry,” she barely makes out between her ragged breaths. “Could you guys pretend we’re eating together? I’m hiding from my ex.” Azumi forces a weak smile.

“OH. Of course. We got you, girl,” one of them says. “Here, pretend to eat my salad.”

Azumi nods in appreciation. “Thanks.”

Her mind was racing. Why is Date Tech after her? What did her father do that got his ass handed to him? She honestly didn’t care that he was now dead. It was better this way. She hated him with her whole being. But his existence is now causing her trouble again. A part of her believed this was finally over with several years ago when he left. She was hopeful her father wouldn’t come back to haunt her and her mother, alive or dead.

“Do you want some water? Or a tissue for your…” Azumi stares blankly at the girl sitting across from her. She pushes a glass of water towards her and gestures to her face. Even though they’re strangers, they all look at Azumi with a look of concern. “Did he do that to you?”

“Oh, no. I just fell off my bike, I was being reckless. I’ll take the water and tissues, thanks.” Azumi quickly wipes the blood off her face and ignores the sting it causes. She reaches for the water and starts to chug it. She doesn’t realize until she starts drinking that her mouth is really dry. Even after drinking the water, her saliva was still sour and thick in her mouth. Her adrenaline was still going and she needed it to figure out how to get through tonight.

Her thoughts went back to her conversation with Kogane and Futakuchi. _“Guy ran with his tail between his legs as soon as he had a chance.”_ She should’ve known. _That asshole probably tried to run away from his own mess again,_ her blood boils in response to her realization. That’s why they wanted her now.

“Hey, uh is your ex that huge guy with the white hair ‘cuz _damn_ girl”. The girl next to her nudged her and pointed to a tall man at the entrance of the cafeteria. He was obviously looking for someone as his eyes were rapidly darting searching for a particular face. He wore a white and teal jacket and was somehow even bigger than Kogane. He looked much more ruthless and brutal than the other two.

“Yeah it is,” Azumi can’t help but shudder. “Can you guys tell me when it looks like he’s spotted me? I’ll run when he does. Also, I’m really sorry for troubling you.”  
  
“Hey, it’s okay. We know all about crazy exes, don’t worry.”

Azumi eyed her nearest exit. What was her next plan? _Maybe that man won’t cause a scene since the cafeteria is so crowded. In movies, they’re usually more discrete with their operations. But I can’t trust he won’t do anything, and I can’t just run around hiding on campus. They’re eventually going to catch up. I need to find help… but who would help me?_ Azumi sighs. She takes a glance at the big white-haired male. He’s slowly making his way around the cafeteria. She’ll have to leave soon before he spots her.

_“Mizuki, I know we’re not leaving on the best of terms but… If you need help, I’m here for you. No matter what.”_

_Azumi twitches at the familiar use of her first name. They’re not parting ways with the same relationship they had a few months ago. Things were different now._

_“Yeah,” she says quietly._

_“Mizuki, look at me”_

_Azumi hesitates but eventually looks up at the familiar narrow golden eyes. She’s always thought those eyes could belong to a cat._

_“You can still trust me. I’m here for you. Always.”_

_Azumi nods. “Me too.”_

_“Don’t look so down,” he laughs. “I’ll see you again soon.”  
  
Azumi knew this was a lie but she forces a smile._

_“There’s always time to get funky,” he says with a grin._

_Azumi snorts._

_“C’mon, say it. You always say it!”_

_“There’s always time to Cha Cha Slide,” she grumbles._

Azumi growls at the memory. She’s backed into a corner at this point and can’t be picky anymore with who she can ask for help. She pulls out her phone and dials the number she has never forgotten, even when she tried. The phone rings twice until a familiar voice is heard.

“Hey, what’s up?”

Azumi realizes he picked up so fast that she never got a chance to think of what to say. “It’s me.”

“Mizuki? This is a surprise! I never expected you to c-“

“It’s Date Tech. They’re after me,” she says abruptly.

Azumi watches the white-haired male reach closer and closer to her. As if he heard her, he stares directly at her and his brows furrow. She didn’t think he could look even more angry than he already looked.

“…know that? Where are you right now?”

The white-haired man suddenly stops walking and simply points at Azumi with an outstretched finger. Her face pales and her heart plummets. She’s unable to swallow the thick saliva in her mouth. She feels nailed to her seat by his finger. He looks like a beast. A beast targeting his prey.

The white-haired man starts to walk towards her in large strides. With each step, he makes the ground rumble letting everyone know he is coming. A beast of that size has a ravenous appetite. An appetite for pain and blood.

“Mizuki? Say something!”

The voice snaps her out of her trance. Azumi bolts and makes for the closest exit she was eyeing earlier. “I’m at school. I have to go.” She hangs up quickly and breaks into a run. She tries to forget the pain in her abdomen and keeps running. _If looks could kill,_ she thought. _I’d be lucky if I came out with only these broken ribs after he’s done with me._

She exits the building and turns to run down an alleyway. She’s less familiar with this area on campus but knows she’ll have to travel a weaving path afterwards so she could lose her pursuer. The sun has completely set and the only light that helps her see is the bright moon. By the time she makes it to the end of the alleyway, her eyes have adjusted to the darkness.

Her eye catches the edge of campus. The stores in downtown Tokyo are brightly lit and the sidewalks are populated. _Maybe I can lose them in the crowd there_ , she thinks. She tries to sprint but has to stop because the pain in her abdomen becomes unbearable. Her body trembles and the pain makes her eyes water. She clutches her side. _Stop crying Mizuki. You can’t fucking see when you cry._ She roughly wipes her tears with the back of her hand and her vision clears. She stops abruptly and her blood freezes.

Kogane is in front of her and she notices a large bruise swelling on his cheek. His eyes narrow and they don’t leave her face. He was out for revenge.

“Thought you could get away with what you did to me and Futakuchi, you wench?”

Azumi tries to control her breathing. She doesn’t want him to know that she’s trembling with fear and in a ridiculous amount of pain. She forces a brave face.

Azumi smirks, “What was that saying? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. If you’re half as dumb as you look, I’m sure I can beat you again.”

“Think you have a smart mouth? I’m not stupid. There’s more of us this time. You’re cornered.”

Azumi glances around and grits her teeth. He’s right. She can spot two more people coming on her right. The white-haired beast will catch up with her soon enough behind her. It only makes sense to sprint to the left.

“Don’t let her escape!” yells Kogane from behind her.

All she hears is the sound of her ragged breathing, the sound of blood pumping into her head and the steps of her pursuers. She jerks to the sound resembling a crack of thunder. A bullet whizzes by and cuts her tricep. _They’re the fucking yakuza. Of course they have guns._

“You idiots! How could you miss? She’s right there!”

“Sorry Kogane-san, we were trying not to hit you… you’re so big.”  
  
“What did you say?!” Kogane barks from behind Azumi.

She makes a sharp turn into a stone arch pathway. She doesn’t even know where she’s trying to run to. All she knows is that she needs to get away. However, she’s not lucky.

The path is blocked by the white-haired beast. His stare makes her blood run cold. She feels the hair on her nape stand up. _A plan. I need a plan. Think Mizuki!_

“I see you’ve met Date Tech’s Shinigami. It looks like Aone is ready to feast on his prey, doesn’t he?”

The other men with Kogane laugh and jeer at his comment.

“How about we let Aone have his dinner? Just remember Boss still needs her alive Aone!” one of them taunts.

_Okay, be optimistic Mizuki. One is better than four right? But that’s one fucking big one._

Aone simply grunts in acknowledgement and breaks into a run towards Azumi. Azumi pulls out Kogane’s pocket staff and tucks Futakuchi’s knife in her boot. She crouches and braces for impact.

Aone’s first punch is straight at her chest. She swerves to the right but isn’t quite able to dodge the blow. He strikes her in the shoulder forcing her to fall backwards. She lands hard on her shoulder and instinctively rolls over to protect the ribs on her right side. Pain now radiating from her right abdomen and now her left shoulder. It wasn’t dislocated but it definitely wouldn’t last another blow like that again.

She rolls over and gets up on her hands and knees. She struggles to breathe from the pain radiating from her abdomen. A foot strikes her gut and she hears more of her ribs break upon impact. She flies another few feet and curls up on her side. Azumi can’t help but cry. The pain is excruciating.

“That all you got, bitch?” Kogane taunts. “You had so much fight in you before. Where did that all go?”

Azumi internally screams at her body to get up. She manages to get on her hands and knees again but coughs at the movement. She hacks up blood and feels it drip down her chin. _It can’t get worse than this right?_

She is wrong. Her vision goes white and her scream pierces the quiet night as Kogane stabs a knife into the back of her left hand.

“That’s for my foot, you bitch!” Kogane yells. “And this, is for Futakuchi!”

Her hand is on fire, but she could still feel the knife slide out of her hand all too slowly. She feels her body burning up and her heart racing rapidly. _Be strong Mizuki, be in control._ Azumi closes her eyes and grits her teeth in anticipation of the pain. But it doesn’t come.

She looks up to see Kogane on the ground clutching his face and screaming. She sees a dark tall figure fighting Aone. He’s swift and precise with his movements, landing multiple blows on the white-haired beast. He isn’t powerful enough to throw Aone backwards, but it does enough to prevent him from striking. Azumi isn’t able to hold herself up anymore and collapses on her left side. She wheezes and fights to stay awake despite her body demanding rest.

Her saviour loses his initial advantage of surprise and takes a blow to the face. He flies through the stone arch causing the structure to collapse and crumble. He lies in rubble, unmoving as Aone slowly approaches his body. He picks up a large piece of stone and tosses it a few times testing the weight.

_Get up!_ Azumi tries to say, but nothing comes out. She tries to roll onto her hands and knees again and grimaces at the pain. She looks at her saviour’s unmoving body in horror. In her peripherals, she sees more Date Tech members arriving at the scene. _We can’t both die here,_ she thinks. _He can’t die because of me._ Her shaking fingers grip the ground and she feels her tears drip onto the back of her hands with a sting.

“I’m so fucking weak,” she growls to herself. She remembers how helpless she felt all those years ago. Her body might be failing her again, but her spirits won’t. She looks at the white-haired beast standing over the motionless body. As if in slow motion, his hand lifts, stone in hand, ready to strike.

“Fight!” she finally manages to scream.

Aone strikes with the stone. The dark-haired man rolls over and the impact of stone on stone creates more rubble. A crack of thunder rips through the sky and Aone suddenly falls on one knee. He clutches his shoulder and Azumi realizes there’s blood spurting out.

The Date Tech members are shocked by the scene and don’t notice three figures in black jumping into the scene.

“King, you’re a huge idiot you know that!” yells a smaller orange-haired man.

Booming laughter erupts from a taller man with a buzz cut. Azumi hardly thought this was a time to be laughing. But, he appears to be laughing at the lump developing on her saviour’s face. “That’s what you get for trying to jump in on the action before everybody else.”

The small male with spiky hair holds back a laugh and clears his throat. “Alpha says to bring her to the car first. We’ll catch up when we’re done here,” he instructs.

The black-haired man on the ground growls, “Fine.”

Even in Azumi’s half-conscious state, she knew that voice. It was just one word, but she could recognize it anywhere.

The man tears a piece of cloth from his shirt and hurriedly wraps it around her hand tightly. With her wound so fresh, it hurts tremendously, and she bites down on her lip to hold in her screams. She is suddenly picked up, initiating another wave of excruciating pain in her side. She grits her teeth and clings onto her carrier’s jacket. She fights to hold in the scream her throat is too tired to release.

As she leaves the scene, she looks back and watches the three figures in black battling the Date Tech members. The orange-haired man is extremely agile and weaves through the Date Tech members, striking when they’re startled. He creates an opening for the taller male who strikes at each target with tremendous strength. The third male maintains a defensive approach in combat and strikes when the opportunity appears. They are all skilled and seem to handle their opponents comfortably.

She looks back at the man carrying her. She knows that face. She realizes how familiar his features are. His sharp chin, his narrow navy eyes, his black hair not quite covering his eyes. Despite him bearing injuries and having to carry her, his breathing is even and calm. He doesn’t realize she’s awake as she stares into his familiar eyes, reigniting this warm feeling in her stomach. His warmth is comforting and almost lulls her to sleep, but she forces herself to wake with a jolt. She shoves aside her initial relief and finally identifies her saviour.

“Kageyama, you son of a bitch. Put me down right now.”


	2. Familiar Faces

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: This is my first fic and the whole idea actually came to me in a very detailed dream... It took me days to piece together the jumbled mess until I decided to finally write it out! The chase scene in the cafeteria was actually one of those scenes :)

The man named Kageyama looks down at Azumi with a scowl. “You’d just slow me down, you idiot. And don’t tell me what to do, I just saved your ass.”

Despite her weariness, Azumi glares back at him, cursing her luck at having _him_ be the one to save her. She refuses to look at that bratty face anymore and instead, turns to scowl at the empty street in front of them. She ignores her shortness of breath and replies in a snappy tone, “I didn’t need your help. I was handling it just fine.”

Kageyama slows down from his running pace into a brisk walk as he approaches a parked car. “Suuure you were, Ms. Beaten to a Pulp,” he sarcastically drags out the first word. “It looked like you were totally handling it.”

Azumi angrily cross her arms. The simple movement hurts more than she would like to admit, causing her to bite her cheek to hide the pain. Her pride was at stake here, she couldn’t appear to be weak. “Shut up. You just got me on a bad day, okay?”

Kageyama slows down to a stop and bends down to reach for the car door handle. Despite his snarky replies and foul face, he puts her down gently into the backseat, being careful not to lay her on her right side. “Yeah, whatever idiot,” he says in a surprisingly quiet and warmer tone.

Azumi would’ve noticed the change in tone if her adrenaline didn’t finally give out. She drowsily blinks at the driver who turns around to say something to her, but she can’t quite make out what he’s saying. She hears Kageyama close the door after getting in the front seat and starts to only see darkness. She’s no longer able to fight the urge of falling asleep.

\--

_“Mizuki! Come meet your new friend!”_

_Azumi growls. She doesn’t want to make new friends. She doesn’t need new friends. She has herself and all the toys in her new room. In fact, the 1000 piece puzzle she’s working on is practically 1000 friends. She musters up the confidence to tell her mom that._

_“Mizuki! Don’t make me call you a third time.”_

_“Ugh, I’ll save it for next time,” Azumi mumbles under her breath. She makes her way downstairs, making sure her stomping is loud enough to be heard. She needs to show she’s mad and hates being interrupted when playing with all 1000 of her friends._

_She follows the sound of chatter outside and walks towards the front door. She sees her mom talking to a tall dark-haired woman just outside their door on the path splitting their lawn and garden in two._ More like meet your friend, not my friend _, Azumi mumbles._

_Her mom is wearing an obnoxiously bright sundress which dramatically contrasts the other woman’s blues and greys. One of her arms is occupied holding a container of cookies and the other gestures for Azumi to come closer._

_Azumi drags her feet and suddenly feels shy. She feels nervous meeting yet another new face and partially hides behind her. “This is Kageyama-san, she’s our neighbour across the street. And this is Mizuki, she’s also 10 years old and will be starting the fifth grade with you, Tobio-kun.”_ Who is she talking to? _A confused Azumi looks up at her mom._

_“Hi Mizuki-chan,” the tall lady bends down to her level and smiles. Azumi notices how her deep blue eyes sparkle and a strand of her shiny black hair falls in front of her shoulder. “It looks like both of our kids are really shy,” the tall woman laughs as she stands up straight to look at Azumi’s mom. She looks back down at Mizuki, “This is my son, Tobio. He’ll be showing you around at your new school.”_

_Azumi finally realizes there’s actually a boy hiding behind Kageyama-san. She sees a hand cling to her hip and his head starts to poke out from behind her arm. He has the same dark blue eyes and black shiny hair as his mom. However instead of the warm, comforting feeling she gets from looking at Kageyama-san, she gets these weird jitters in her stomach looking at him._

_Kageyama-san pulls her arm out of his way and pushes him forward. “Silly boy, say hi,” she grins._

_“H-hi Mizu,,,-chan,” he hesitantly greets._

_Azumi is appalled._ Is he already calling her by a nickname? Or is he just dumb enough to not remember her full name? _“My name’s not Mizu, you idiot. It’s Mizuki. Mi-zu-ki,” snaps Azumi._

_Kageyama’s face turns bright red and he stiffens up like a wooden board._

I guess he’s just dumb, _she concludes._

_“That’s rude Mizuki, don’t say that. I’m sure it was just a mistake! Apologize!” her mother scolds._

_“It’s alright, Tobio’s not great with names,” laughs Kageyama-san. Kageyama somehow turns even more red and he takes a few steps back, attempting to hide behind his mother yet again._

_Azumi growls and turns her head away. She doesn’t want to look at that face anymore. She can’t figure out why she doesn’t like him already. It’s probably that irritating face, she thinks. It makes her stomach feel uncomfortable and her skin feel warm. “I’m sorry,” she finally spits out._

_“I-it’s okay. It was my m-mistake,” Kageyama stutters from behind his mother._

_“Well thank you again for the cookies Kageyama-san. I’m embarrassed I don’t have anything to gift you! How about you two come over for dinner tomorrow night!” Azumi’s mom’s eyes light up at her sudden idea. “I make some really good ramen, it’s my signature dish,” she laughs loudly making Azumi’s ears ring a little._

_“That sounds wonderful. And please, just Kageyama is fine. We’ll see you tomorrow then! Say bye, Tobio.”_

_“Bye…” a little voice mumbles from behind her._

_\--_

Azumi’s eyes flutter as she begins to awaken. It feels sudden that she’s dreaming about that specific memory and it makes her stomach turn remembering Kageyama’s ten-year-old face. _I suppose he was pretty cute as a kid_ , she thinks to herself.

Her eyes finally manage to open completely, and she finds herself staring at a what used to be a white ceiling. She feels like she just experienced the longest sleep of her life. She’s normally unable to sleep longer than three hours at a time at night.

Azumi realizes she’s lying in bed in a room similar to an infirmary, except everything’s gloomier. There are no windows and the only light in the room is from the small lamp to her left on a small bed stand. There are mouldy spots scattered along the walls and the room feels stuffy despite its size. The room is probably larger than what she can see as the rows of beds seem to repeat endlessly.

She looks down at her body and her stomach drops. The first thing she sees is her bandaged hand and she immediately freezes. This time, she isn’t prepared to coax herself to stay calm like when she was initially stabbed. She breaks into a cold sweat, remembering the feeling of Kogane’s knife piercing her skin, muscles, and bones. She hears the wet sound of the knife sliding out and the way her blood just kept spurting. Her heart starts to beat rapidly as the fear and helplessness of that moment catch up to her and she begins to hyperventilate. Her vision blurs and all she can hear is the sound of her head pounding louder and louder. She feels excruciatingly hot and tries to kick the covers away from herself as the sound of her heart pounds louder and louder. _I’m going to die. I’m going to die. I’m going to die._

Something grabs her hand, but she doesn’t spare a thought to the sensation. She feels like her heart is going to burst from inside her chest and kill her.  
  
“Hey, look at me,” a stern voice cuts through. She doesn’t realize she’s been screaming.

“Mizuki, look at me.” A pair of hands tears her own hands clasping her head and rests them on the bed. The hands reach out to hold her face and gently turn her head to her right. For a moment, her head pounds a little quieter and her heart rate slows fractionally as she looks into the familiar, comforting dark blue eyes. But the panic resumes and she sweats profusely, dripping from her forehead into the pair of hands.

“You’re safe Mizuki. I’m here, I’m here.” Azumi feels the bed dip as the figure settles onto the bed. Her head is brought to his chest and she hears his heart, slowly and calmly drumming in his chest. “Breathe, Mizuki. You’re safe. I’m here,” the voice softly commands.

She feels rough fingertips pull the hair from her face and a palm beginning to stroke the back of her head. The other hand reaches around her and places itself on her lower back, pulling her closer to his chest. Tears start to spill from the edges of her eyes, but they’re quickly soaked up by the shirt her face is resting against. She focuses on breathing deep and slowly, the calm voice repeating instructions endlessly to help her calm down.

Her heart begins to take more time between beats and the pounding in her head starts to fade. She’s able to hear the voice more clearly and it helps her cool down.

“I’m here… I’m here,” the words and the arms continue to embrace her. The hands continue to caress her hair.

Azumi sniffs and clears her throat. She opens her mouth to say something, but the words fail to spill out. The warmth against her face is withdrawn as hands gently hold her shoulders to lean her backwards. She immediately misses the warmth and turn her eyes to look at the warm, navy eyes.

“You’re okay,” Kageyama states, sounding like he was stating it to reassure himself instead of her.

“I’m okay,” Azumi manages. Her eyes dart between each of his worried eyes and she can’t help but feel bad for being the reason they look that way. “You can let go now,” she regretfully says.

Kageyama’s cheeks turn pink and he lets go of her shoulders. He clears his throat, getting up from his spot on the bed. “Sorry,” he mumbles. He takes a few steps backwards and stands awkwardly while looking down at her. “I’ll get you some water. I’ll be right back.”

Azumi nods and watches Kageyama walk away. A part of her feels embarrassed that he saw her in that state. She raises her hand to wipe the remaining tears with the back of her hand. _I haven’t had one of those in awhile_.

She hears Kageyama’s approaching footsteps as he reaches her bed with a glass of water. “Do you want it now? Or I can put it on the table.”  
  
“Now is fine.”

She takes the glass of water and gulps it down. Her throat is so dry, it feels like she hasn’t swallowed anything in days. She places the empty glass on the table, the sound disrupting the awkward silence between them. Kageyama is uncomfortably shifting in the chair to her right, twiddling with his thumbs.

“Your dumbass face is not what I wanted to wake up to.”

Kageyama’s jaw drops as he turns to look at Azumi. He looks completely appalled and almost hurt making it difficult for Azumi to hide her giggles.

“Y-you ungrateful piece of shit!“ he exclaims.

“How long have I been out?” she asks, ignoring his comment.

He looks at her with a sharp glare and eventually relaxes. “A day or two,” he shrugs. He glances at the clock on the wall. _It has actually been exactly 26 hours since I placed her in the car_ , he notes to himself.

“Where am I?”

Kageyama sits back in his seat. He turns away and cross his arms. “Nekoma,” he states. He doesn’t see Azumi’s eyes partially widening.

As if sensing his cue, a tall male with what appears to be a ridiculous bed head enters the room. His walk reeks of arrogance and the grin he gives Azumi reinforces the image. “Funny seeing you here isn’t it, Mizuki?”

Kageyama visibly twitches at the use of her first name. He stands up suddenly, causing the chair he was sitting on to scrape the tiled floor.

“Whoa, someone’s antsy,” chuckles the new visitor.

“Kuroo,” Azumi states. Kageyama looks back at the woman sitting in bed. His eyes narrow and dart back and forth between the two figures. _How do they know each other?_

“Funny we’re meeting under these circumstances isn’t it?” Kuroo asks, maintaining the grin on his face.

“Yeah…” Azumi grumbles. She attempts to cross her arms, but she realizes the pain is too great in her left hand. She grips the bed with her right hand instead.

“You look as beautiful as ever, kitten. Despite the bandages,” Kuroo comments in a coy tone.

Kageyama noticeably stiffens. _Who the hell does this bastard think he is and what kind of nickname is kitten?_ _I don’t care who he is. If he says another stupid thing, I’m going to give it to him._ He glares at Kuroo hoping his scowl could visibly hurt the man.

Azumi scoffs, “Shut up, you flirty bastard.”

Kuroo’s laugh erupts and echoes in the empty room. “You’re still the exact same, you know that Mizuki?”

Kageyama’s eyes dart back at Azumi to gauge her reaction. His mind was whirling with questions. _How do they know each other? Why does he use her first name? Are they really close? Are they lovers?_ He only realizes now that his hands are clenched so hard that his nails might split the skin in his palms. _Why does Kuroo bother him so much?_

“Could you give us a moment, Kageyama?” Kuroo asks in a tone that’s almost a command. He turns his head to look at Kuroo’s annoying smirk and it makes Kageyama’s blood boil. _Don’t tell me what to do_. He grits his teeth.

“And tell Daichi she’s awake,” Kuroo adds. Kageyama looks at Kuroo and then at Azumi. He recalls Kuroo’s position in Nekoma and it finally occurs to him that he can’t refuse a command from someone of his status. He nods and then aggressively turns to leave.

Kuroo waits until Kageyama leaves the room and walks around Azumi’s bed to sit in the now vacant chair.

“Were you involved in finding me?” Azumi asks, sounding more like a demand.

“Well, you did call me,” Kuroo shrugs as he picks at his nails. Azumi can’t help but grip her bed sheets. It bothers her how nonchalantly he’s acting regarding her situation. Though she notes his gung ho, careless attitude was one of the reasons why they were so balanced and compatible.

“Y’know, even though you probably still hate me right now, I still care for you a lot, Mizuki.” She twitches at the comment. “You were in pretty rough shape by the time they brought you here. You’re pretty _blessed_ you got here soon enough for us to treat your hand and ribs. Get it?” His upper lip quivers as he grins. “Your hand was _holy_.” Finally relishing in the release of the punchline, he’s no longer able to hold in his laughter and releases an explosive laugh.

Azumi has never tried so hard to hold in her laughter. She bites her lip until she tastes blood. Frustratingly, her top lip still couldn’t stop quivering from the urge to laugh. Kuroo threw a finger up to point at Azumi and started cackling after seeing how furiously Azumi fought to hold her laugh in.

Kuroo finally settles down after his mediocre joke and wipes his eyes with the back of his hand. “All jokes aside, you were actually in rough shape,” his voice lowers into a serious tone Azumi never heard often. “You broke almost all the ribs on your right side, collapsed a lung and you won’t be able to move your left hand like you used to. Maybe grip a few things once you recover, but it’ll never function the same way. We don’t exactly have doctors here, so your tendons were poorly sewn together,” he states.

Azumi glances at her hand and shudders. She still has her right hand, she tells herself. She’s not completely handicapped.

“You probably have a lot of questions. But I’ll save them for Daichi. He’s the next in command for Karasuno, the yakuza group Mr. Grumpy Pants is in. He’s the Kageyama from your childhood isn’t he? The one you had a huuuuuge crush on,” he nudges her gently, with his stupid grin again.

Azumi snatches the empty glass on the bed stand at lightning speed and throws the cup at Kuroo. He catches the cup and laughs even louder. Azumi turns her head straight and growls, feeling her face warm up. It also hurt her side to move so suddenly like that, but she tried her hardest not to let it show on her face.

“It seems you’re not able to charm _all_ the ladies, Kuroo,” a deep voice echoes at the entrance of the room, accompanied by a chuckle. The voice appears to have come from the black-haired male.

“I’d definitely pay to see her throw more things at you,” giggles the gray haired-male.

“She’s special,” Kuroo admits with a grin. He stands up and walks toward the other side of her bed to place the cup down. He bows his head to greet the visitors. “This is Daichi and Sugawara,” he gestures to the approaching men. “You can call them Boss and Vice-Boss,” jokes Kuroo. “I’ll be taking my leave now, see you Mizuki.”

Azumi’s eyes follow Kuroo’s figure until he exits the room. She turns back to look at the two men at the end of her bed.

The man named Daichi smiles. “I’m not quite Boss yet so don’t call me that,” he chuckles. He walks around to the chair and sits down, “Now, I’m sure you have a lot of questions for me, Azumi.”


	3. New Beginnings

Azumi has so many questions whirling through her head, she doesn’t quite know where to start. She stares at the two pairs of surprisingly kind eyes waiting for her to speak. She tries to ignore the warm feeling she gets and tells herself she still needs to be cautious. She still doesn’t know who these people are.

“Who are you?” she decides to start with.

“Well, as Kuroo mentioned, I’m Daichi and this is Sugawara. I’m the next in command once Ukai formally steps down,” the man with black hair starts.

“You forgot to mention we’re from Karasuno, silly,” the gray-haired man named Sugawara nudges Daichi. Daichi is startled by the gesture and then nervously laughs.

Azumi ignores their interaction and asks her next question. “Who is Karasuno? Or what is it?”

“We’re a yakuza group, similar to Nekoma, as you seem to already be familiar with. We’ve been allies with Nekoma for some time now, but we mostly function independently in Miyagi whereas them in Tokyo. We’re just borrowing their space right now because of your sudden appearance. I’m not sure how much Kuroo would want to share with you, but I can probably mention that he is like myself, next in command for Nekoma. He is good at what he does and will be leading Nekoma eventually.”

Azumi nods and tries to hide her surprise. Kuroo and her didn’t part ways that long ago and now he’s second in command. _He must’ve worked hard to get to where he is._ The thought also makes her irritated.

“Regarding how Karasuno and Nekoma function,” Daichi starts again. “We take on missions that help our communities. We do the dirty work for people who have reputations to maintain, and of course with the right pay. It’s usually taking down guys who think they can cheat the system, but the reason doesn’t really matter to us. Our goal is to maintain the status quo from behind the scenes. We’re good at being discrete and making people disappear quietly. We don’t expect gratitude from the public, so we aim to keep our jobs quiet and clean up after ourselves.”

Azumi simply nods trying to absorb all the information Daichi has just provided. Even though her father was involved with Date Tech, she didn’t actually know all that much about what he did. All she knew was that he was involved with killing people. That was enough reason for her to hate it.

“How did Kageyama end up with you?” she asks.

Daichi looks at Sugawara and scratches his head. “That’s probably his story to share. All I’ll say is that we knew each other prior to working together in Karasuno,” Daichi definitively states.

“Although it’s best not to hold dangerous secrets, some information is personal and won’t have to be shared with everyone in Karasuno,” Sugawara comments. “However, it is mandatory for everyone to share that information with myself and Daichi as we need to be aware of everyone’s history. And that conversation is only necessary if we haven’t already figured it out ourselves,” he adds with a wink.

Azumi shifts a little in her bed, feeling uncomfortable that these two leaders may already know too much about her.

“What do you know about Date Tech? Do you know why they were after me?”

“To start, Date Tech is a smaller yakuza group similar to Karasuno. However, they operate more carelessly with the intention of receiving as many jobs as possible. They also tend to be more reckless when recruiting and therefore never really grow stronger or be able to maintain their numbers,” Daichi explains.

“So, they’re not that strong,” Azumi concludes.

“Well, they are strong, they just don’t grow in strength every year. They are definitely a force to be reckoned with in the Miyagi district, they just don’t have the right process when it comes to expanding,” explains Sugawara. “They are reckless with their jobs as well, not properly cleaning up or keeping their missions hidden from public eye. Their jobs are messy, and they barely keep missions hidden from the public eye. They also shouldn’t have been taking care of their own matters in a different district. If they continue operating like so, other groups like Karasuno and Nekoma might have to discuss some sort of… intervention,” states Sugawara.

_So that means Date Tech could be hunted by other yakuza groups,_ Azumi deduces.

“To answer the second part to your question, I’m sure you already know or have an idea of the answer. Your father was one of those quick recruits. He tried to flee before paying his debts, and I’m sorry to say, they killed him,” Daichi states with a tone of remorse.

Azumi flinches, hoping it goes unnoticed. Sugawara’s eyes soften watching how her eyes move to stare intently at her feet with inner conflict. “You don’t have to apologize,” she starts. “He was already dead to me anyways.”

Sugawara frowns with concern and glances at Daichi to gauge his reaction. However, Daichi maintains the same neutral expression, eyes fixed on Azumi.

For a moment, it was quiet as Azumi wrestled with her next question. Her face twists trying to figure out how to ask it.

“Do you know about my mom?” Azumi suddenly asks in such a small, childlike voice, Sugawara can’t help but feel his heart clench inside his chest.

“Unfortunately, after your father’s attempted escape and death, Date Tech got to your mother first. They demanded payments from her and killed her after she couldn’t keep up with their demands,” Daichi states.

Azumi’s world tilts and time seems to stop. Her breath hitches and she clenches the bed sheets, forgetting the pain in her hand. She feels her chest tighten, with grief or anger, she’s not quite sure. The air suddenly feels too thick to breathe and her vision starts to blur from the development of her tears. She tries her hardest to blink back her tears, telling herself she can’t be weak anymore.

Daichi and Sugawara share a glance, not wanting to be the first to break the silence. They watch Azumi carefully as she attempts to collect herself.

After feeling like time has finally resumed again, Azumi breaks the uncomfortable silence. Her low voice resonating with anger, “Are those bastards dead?”

Daichi hums. “Some are. I know for sure their Shinigami is still alive. I believe the blond haired-male also managed to escape once our men arrived.”

_So those bastards are still alive,_ Azumi concludes. She stares at her bandaged left hand and finds her body heating up with rage. She decides she still has more questions to ask and tries to ignore the anger building up in her body.

“Why did Karasuno save me?”

“We were already keeping an eye on you before hearing about Date Tech’s involvement with you. We happened to be in the area for a different mission and so it wasn’t our plan to retrieve you so early.” Daichi clears his throat and pauses. “Kuroo contacted me demanding we move immediately and gave us your location. He had been out of town on his own mission and wasn’t able to come get you himself.”

Azumi takes a moment to process this new information. “Okay, so why did Karasuno want me in the first place?”

“Well, we were hoping…” Daichi pauses to swallow. He shares a quick glance with Sugawara, seeking reassurance about telling her the part. Sugawara nods with certainty. “Ahem, we were hoping that with you, we’d be able to find your father,” Daichi hesitantly states.

Azumi raises an eyebrow. “You just said my father is dead.”  
  
“I’m not talking about Aizawa-san,” Daichi pauses. Azumi doesn’t realize she’s been holding her breath until he speaks again. “I’m talking about your birth father.”

Sugawara grips the bed frame at the end of Azumi’s bed. It makes him uncomfortable watching Azumi become flooded with emotion yet again. She looks unsettled, angry and mostly confused. Her knuckles are white and shaking from clenching the bed sheets so tightly. He can see her bandages start to soil with blood from her grip. Sugawara looks at Daichi with a concerned look, “Maybe this is enough for today, Daichi. We should let her rest.”

Daichi stands up and simply nods. He pauses before he starts again, “However, there is one more thing I have to say to you.”

Azumi slowly raises her head to look up at Daichi. His presence suddenly demanding attention and respect. The fierceness in his eyes makes it hard for her to ignore. She isn’t able to hide the anxiousness on her face this time.

“Nekoma has agreed to tend to you for now, only because Kuroo has spoken up on your behalf. You, who is not affiliated with either Nekoma or Karasuno poses a risk to both our groups by keeping you here. We did not intend to retrieve you so early, so we had to make adjustments to our original plan. We realize we cannot simply release you to live your normal life as Date Tech will continue to pursue you.” He pauses and shares a glance with Sugawara.

“On behalf of Karasuno, Sugawara and I have decided to pay Date Tech the money they have demanded from your family. As a result, _you_ now owe Karasuno. You either pay the money you owe up front, or you work till your debt is paid. Since you don’t have the money for the first option, it forces you to choose the latter. You do understand what it means to work for Karasuno, correct?”

Azumi didn’t think she could feel even more unsettled and conflicted. There was a reason why she resented her father so much. There was a reason why she was so against Kuroo leaving. And yet here she was, caught up in the mess she fought hard to steer Kuroo away from.

It was different now though. Her mother is dead. Her birth father is somehow involved. She doesn’t have anything against Karasuno other than them being yakuza, but she knows she hates Date Tech with newfound rage. She’s fed up with how weak and helpless she is. Nothing has changed since the past. She wants to be strong. She wants to be strong enough to protect herself and the people she loves.

She finally releases the grip she’s had on her bed sheets and feels her blood boil a different kind of way. She nods, her resolute gaze fixed on Daichi, “I’ll do whatever you want. But promise me that I’ll be included when it’s time to hunt Date Tech,” she states.

Azumi stares at Daichi with such determined eyes that he feels the hair at his nape stick up. He nods before gesturing to Sugawara to make their exit.

\--

_Azumi is sitting at the kitchen table in her home. She had just gotten home after her last day of high school and has now slumped in her chair, head resting on her crossed forearms on the table. The last day of high school meant starting university soon and that seemed like such a drag._

_“Mizuki! Why do you look so gloomy? You just finished high school! We should celebrate!” her mom says in a sing song way. She is always so optimistic and makes everything sound like a blessing._

_“But Mom…” Azumi grumbles. “High school ending means university starting and I don’t want to go to university. You’ll be at home by yourself too. Are you sure you’ll be okay?” She sits up to look at her mom questionably._

_Her mom is standing in front of the sink washing dishes. She turns around and smiles sweetly, the light from the window illuminating her face, further brightening her smile. “Of course, sweetie. I’ll be fine here. I can’t make my poor daughter choose a closer school just because her mom can’t be by herself,” she giggles. “You’re so talented and smart Mizuki, you need to go to the best school out there. It’s just too bad that Tokyo is so far,” she says gently. “I’m so proud of you, y’know that?”_

_Azumi cringes at how cheesy her mom is and how she loves to shower her in compliments. It makes her so uncomfortable. “Yes Mom, you tell me everyday. At least once in the morning and once before bed.”_

_Her mom laughs as she flicks the last plate before placing it into the dishwasher. She turns around and dries her hands on the front of her apron. “How about I make you ramen as a celebration? It’s your favourite!”_

_Azumi doesn’t actually like ramen, but it’s the only dish that her mom can make, and not even that well. But the way her mom’s face lights up when Azumi tells her it’s delicious is everything. She grins at her mom’s excitement._

_“Sure, Mom. I’d love to have your ramen.”_

Azumi wakes up to see the mouldy white ceiling again. Using her only functional hand, she tries to carefully sit up in bed so that she could drink the glass of water placed on her bed stand. When she manages to sit up, she sees something drip onto her lap. It finally sinks in. Her mom is gone. No one will be waiting for her at home. Azumi gasps and she doesn’t try to fight the tears anymore. She clutches her arms as her body shakes with her sobs. For once, she doesn’t care about how she looks or how she sounds. She’s never felt so alone.

However, she doesn’t notice the dark blue-eyed male hovering just outside the entrance to her room. He had been planning to check in on her to see if she wanted something to eat but found himself frozen. He feels his heart clench and his stomach turn seeing her this way. He should give her some privacy, but he can’t seem to find it in himself to leave her alone. Instead, he leans against the doorframe with his back to her and silently mourns with her.

He vows to himself that he’ll never let anyone hurt her this way ever again.

\--

Azumi has an easier time sitting up in bed this time and her eyes follow Kuroo as he carefully places a tray of food on her lap. She can feel how swollen her eyes are from crying, but he doesn’t comment on it. Her stomach growls at the sight of food. She doesn’t even know if he’s serving her breakfast, lunch or dinner because of the lack of sunlight in her room. A part of her is itching to be outside again but the other part of her wants to curl up and stay in the bed forever. She looks more carefully at her meal and realizes it includes a bowl of chicken noodle soup, a juice box, a small container of jello and a familiar pill.

“Y’know Mizuki, you’re being treated like royalty here. Having one of the largest yakuza group’s second in command serve you lunch is a big deal,” Kuroo laughs as he sits down in the chair next to her bed. He runs a hand through his unruly hair. It amazes Azumi how wild his hair is. It amazes her even more that women actually find it attractive.

“What can I say, Kuroo. You’ll always be my little bitch,” Azumi teases.

Kuroo stares at her with an unreadable face, then shakes his head and laughs. “You honestly never change.”

Kuroo notices Azumi eyeing the pill on the tray suspiciously. “If I remember correctly, it should be the same one you used to take. I had someone pickup some for you”. Azumi nods in acknowledgement and starts eating. However, she reaches a predicament. Her soup has a lid and it is proving to be difficult to open it with one hand. She tries to use four of her fingers to pull it up while her thumb presses down on the other end. However, she fails and almost spills her lunch over her lap.

“As much as I’d love to see you spill your lunch all over your lap, I can’t help but feel bad at how pathetic you look right now,” Kuroo jokes. He stands up and reaches over to remove the lid. Azumi huffs out of annoyance as she glares at him.

He sits back down and begins picking at his nails like he usually does when he doesn’t have anything to do with his hands. Azumi picks up her spoon and encounters another problem. She realizes the distance from the bowl of soup to her mouth is quite far and she’s not sure if her hand will be steady enough to feed herself without spilling. She glares at her soup, spoon in hand, brows furrowed.

Kuroo snickers. “I always thought you looked cute when you’re frustrated. Your brows always furrow this certain way and your nose flares.” Azumi flashes a glare at him. “Do you want me to feed you as well, my princess?” he jokes.

“No. I’m fine,” Azumi snaps back at remarkable speed. She fills her spoon with less soup than she would like but admits it’s better than having Kuroo feed her. “My pride is on the line here,” she mutters.

She slowly eats in silence while Kuroo resumes picking at his nails. “I heard that you’re joining Karasuno,” he states disrupting the silence. He pauses and glances at her, waiting for a response. She doesn’t give him one, so he decides to continue. “How are you feeling?” he tentatively asks.

They both know he’s not asking about her physical condition. They both know joining the yakuza is the last thing Azumi would’ve wanted. Uncomfortable with how heavy the air feels with his loaded question, he adds, “Y’know it’s kind of ironic. You spent all those months arguing with me trying to convince me not to join the yakuza and here you are, joining me.”

Azumi snorts. “Well, I didn’t exactly ask to join,” she snaps back. But then her face begins to soften, “And things are different now,” she says quietly.

Kuroo leans back in his chair, tentatively watching Azumi. She’s reflecting a mixture of emotions and he can’t quite point out what she’s really feeling. “Yeah,” he agrees quietly.

She continues to eat for a few minutes and places her spoon down to take a break. She doesn’t want to admit that eating is making her more tired than she thought. “How are Kenma, Bokuto and Akaashi?”

Kuroo playfully frowns. “Wow… you ask about those three and not about me? I’ve known you longer!”

“Pft, that doesn’t even matter. I like them more than you anyways,” she says, the edge of her lips curving up a little.

“Ouch…” he complains. “Well, Kenma is fine. He’s a hacker genius now and he’s a really good intelligence agent. I haven’t seen him recently; he’s been cooped up in the office instructing multiple teams through their missions. He’s one of the best here at Nekoma.”

“That sounds like Kenma,” Azumi smiles. She misses having intellectual discussions with him and geeking out over school related things together. It was also fun to see Kuroo’s upset face at being left out yet again.

“I’m not sure if Akaashi ever told you, but him and Bokuto are at Fukurodani now. Bokuto’s the second in command over there and Akaashi’s his right-hand man. Even though we function in the same city, I don’t think I’ve seen them since a couple months ago. Bokuto is still as loud as ever,” he muses.

He suddenly clears his throat loudly. “And onto me!! I’ve been _great_. I definitely miss you Mizuki, but I’ve been handling myself just fine don’t worry. I kept trying to tell you I’d excel here and I’m glad I finally get a chance to tell you.” Kuroo has now leaned forward, eyes glittering with hope as he waits for some sort of praise or interest in his life.

“Wow, you’re _so_ amazing, Kuroo,” Azumi states sarcastically. She rolls her eyes dramatically so that Kuroo won’t miss it.

“I’ll take it,” Kuroo grins, this time showing off his teeth. “I know you worried about me, you’re just too prideful to admit it,” he gently nudges her with an annoying smirk on his face.

Azumi snorts and picks her spoon back up. She begins to feed herself more aggressively, trying to ignore the comment. She’ll never admit he’s right.

“By the way, can I have your jello? I know you’re not a huge fan but it was the set meal so I figured I’d bring it anyways,” Kuroo expectantly asks.

“Wow, you really are something aren’t you, Kuroo? Eating the food of the person you’re taking care of,” she teases. She tosses him the jello. She wasn’t going to eat it anyways. Kuroo catches it easily and takes the smaller spoon on her tray to start eating it.

“I heard you’re going back to Karasuno with Daichi a few days from now,” he states in a matter of fact tone. “I won’t be able to see you off since I’m leaving for a mission tomorrow.”

Azumi has finally finished her soup and she looks up at Kuroo eating his jello. He has been scraping the container trying to get the last of the jello. The sight makes her smile. Even though she’ll never say it out loud, Kuroo’s presence is comforting. Once upon a time, he was her best friend and always managed to make her laugh. He never let her stress about anything enough to induce her panic attacks. She knew their love for each other was mutual despite separating on bad terms. She’s anxious about getting through the next arc of her life without him.

“It’s okay, Kuroo. I’ll be fine,” she says, hoping her statement will convince the both of them. He puts the very empty jello container back down on the tray and leans in to clasp her hand. Azumi is taken back by the sudden warmth of his hand. His golden eyes look at her with genuine concern and his confident façade disappears. He almost looks sad.

“I’m sorry. For everything,” he says quietly.

Azumi isn’t able to look at Kuroo’s somber face anymore. The silence between them screams an overwhelming amount of emotions. Instead of filling it with empty words of fake reassurance, she simply squeezes his hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Isn't Kuroo such a GEM T-T


	4. Arrival

Azumi looks down at herself in her borrowed pair of clothes. It includes a simple pair of black leggings, a white t-shirt and a gray hoodie. She recognizes the hoodie and knows it belonged to Kuroo. The appearance wasn’t really familiar, but the scent was what gave it away. It was the almost nauseating smell of cologne with a hint of musk that made it easy to identify. The distinct scent comforted her, and wearing it made her feel like he was still with her, supporting her.

Her thoughts are disrupted by Sugawara’s approaching steps. He looks at her with a warm smile, “Got everything you need?”

Azumi glances back at her bed stand. “Well, I really only had the clothes on my back when I came here and I don’t have those anymore,” she comments.

Sugawara chuckles. “I suppose you’re right. Let’s get going then?” He takes a step to the side and gestures her towards the door. She takes a quick glance back at her bed and turns to exit the room.

Sugawara catches up and walks a step in front to guide her to their destination. They walk in comfortable silence along a long corridor dimly lit by flickering lights on the ceiling. Sugawara takes a series of turns, causing Azumi to scrap the idea of familiarizing herself with the area.

“I asked Kageyama to drop by your apartment to pick-up a few of your things,” Sugawara starts. “Since you weren’t awake most of the time, we didn’t get a chance to ask you what you needed.” He turns to look at her, “I hope you don’t urgently need anything,” he smiles. “Unfortunately, we don’t have time to stop by.”

Azumi glances at Sugawara quickly noting his kind smile. “It’s fine, I don’t have anything important there.” She tries not to create sentimental ties with objects.

Sugawara hums quietly in response. “How are you feeling? Your hand and your ribs specifically,” he asks.

“A lot better,” Azumi starts. “My ribs are mostly just sore and they’re a lot less sensitive. My hand is something else though. I’ve been too afraid to try moving my fingers,” she admits.

Sugawara quickly glances at her hand. “It’ll take time, like most things do. Though, it’ll require a lot of work and patience later to get it functioning again. I’ll be the one following up with it when we’re back,” he flashes her a quick smile. “I may not look it, but I’m the main medic at Karasuno.” This time grinning in a way that made his eyes smile.

Azumi can’t help but respond with a smile. “Thanks Sugawara-san.”

“Oh please, just Suga is fine, Azumi.”

Azumi can’t help but be reminded of her mom. Sugawara always has a warm smile and he speaks in a way that makes him sound angelic. He has this positive air to him that makes her want to relish in it.

“I didn’t get a chance to say so earlier,” Sugawara starts. He pauses for a moment, his mouth twisting in a way like he wants to find the right words to say. He turns to look at her again, this time his eyes are no longer smiling and are turned down in a way that makes her feel sad. “I’m sorry about your mom. I could tell she was an amazing person and that she meant a lot to you.”

Azumi’s breath hitches and she’s unable to return Sugawara’s gaze. She feels his hand grip her shoulder as he quietly says, “I’m sure she knows that you love her very much.”

Azumi bites her cheek and her eyes start to water. It was the first time anyone spoke about her mom, let alone given their condolences. She always imagined people in the yakuza to be heartless killers with unimaginable greed for wealth and power. But here she was, with a man she just met a few days ago who was genuinely sorry about her loss. It made her confused.

She simply nods. She feels a hand squeeze her shoulder in reassurance while the other opens a door in front of them to reveal an underground parking garage.

She is surprised to see so many people, forgetting Daichi, Sugawara and Kageyama did not come to Tokyo alone. She sees Kageyama with four other males, one being a very tall gray-haired man that she definitely has not seen before. She’s sure she would’ve remembered him if she did.

Sugawara gestures her to join them. “I’m going to go find Daichi,” he quickly says and departs.

Kageyama sees her first and the sad, pitying look he gives makes her irritated.

“Why is your stupid face like that?” Azumi snaps.

She sees Kageyama jump a little, startled by the presence of her voice or her question. She’s not sure.

“Th-this is my normal face,” Kageyama splutters. His face adopts the frowning face she’s used to. She’s actually more comforted by his grumpy face than that other one.

Kageyama is suddenly shoved aside as three figures push each other to be closer to her. The small one with the orange hair speaks first. “Wow! It’s nice to see you nice and…alive!” he says excitedly. Both his arms are outstretched swatting away the other two males. “We didn’t get a chance to formally meet. I’m Hinata Shoyo!”

Before Azumi has a chance to greet him, the other two males shout at the same time, “I’M TANAKA RYU” “I’M NISHINOYA YU”. They glance at each other in surprise and betrayal. Then the smaller male starts again, “You can call me Noya so it’s easier!” he flashes a smile and gives Azumi a thumbs up. Azumi calls him the smaller one but he’s actually around the same height as her.

Her face is then suddenly cast in shadow as the tall gray-haired man towers over all of them. She notices that he doesn’t quite look fully Japanese and deduces he’s probably of mixed descent. Despite his intimidating looks, he also flashes her a big smile. “I’m Lev Haiba! I heard you’re friends with Kuroo-san! I guess you could call him my mentor at Nekoma,” he awkwardly shrugs and scratches the back of his head.

An arm reaches across her and pushes all the bodies back a few steps. “That’s enough, you idiots. Stop crowding her,” Kageyama snaps.

Azumi raises an eyebrow. Although appreciative of reducing the crowding, she’s not quite sure why Kageyama is acting so protective all of a sudden. It wasn’t like they were close anymore or anything.

“You’re not allowed to be jealous, Kageyama. You already ran to her first before the rest of us could the night we found her!” Hinata exclaims, tilting his head up to look at Kageyama’s reaction.

“Shut up, idiot,” he mutters. He quickly snaps his head to look away from them and immediately crosses his arms. His face twists into a scowl and his cheeks turn a light pink.

Azumi is confused by his reaction but quickly brushes it aside. She can’t help but laugh at the interaction between all the males. It’s the first time she’s laughed in awhile and all the boys stare at her awestruck, as if she were glowing. “I’m Azumi Mizuki,” she chuckles. “It’s nice to meet all of you.” She bows her head slightly.

She doesn’t see Kageyama whip his head back to look at her with a raised eyebrow. He seems confused by her introduction.

“The pleasure is ours!” Tanaka exclaims. “It’s not every day we get to meet a girl in this field!” His hands rest on his hips and he bursts out in a booming laughter.

Hinata takes a step closer to Azumi again and tilts his head to look at her with bright, glittering eyes. “Is it okay if we call you Azu-chan?” Nishinoya’s draw drops as he grabs Hinata’s shoulders. “That is such a CUTE name! Great idea, Shoyo!” he exclaims. Tanaka’s eyes also light up at the suggestion and his cheeks turn pink. It just occurred to him that Azumi is a girl, and a pretty cute one in fact.

Azumi laughs seeing their faces light up. She usually hates nicknames but seeing how excited they are at the prospect makes her let up. She finds the three of them cute and doesn’t have the heart to say no.

“Sure, that’s fine with me,” she says with a smile. Hinata smiles back at her with the brightest smile while Nishinoya and Tanaka cling to each other and start crying while repeating “Azu-chan” like a mantra.

Daichi’s booming authoritative voice disrupts their conversation as he commands them to load their cars. The three of them straighten up and salute with a “Yes Boss!” and disperse.

She turns to face the direction of Daichi’s voice and notices he’s accompanied with two other people. One being Sugawara and the other being a short male with blonde hair and black roots. She isn’t able to contain her joy and runs up to hug him. Azumi has never been an affectionate person or felt the need to receive physical affection but with Kenma, she couldn’t help it. He’s like a little kitten that she always wanted to pat and have him cuddle up next to her. She’s always felt the need to protect him.

Kenma wasn’t an affectionate person either but after spending more time with Azumi, he found himself acting this way with only her. She hugs him tightly and nuzzles her nose in his neck. His arms lightly wrap around her to return the embrace. Neither of them say anything until Azumi is ready to pull apart.

Kenma scrunches his nose. “You look and smell awful, Mizuki. That’s Tetsuro’s sweater isn’t it?”

Azumi can’t help but smile at how quickly he notices. Kenma has always been very observant. “Yeah,”  
she replies.

Kenma pauses and then stares at the ground. “I’m sorry I didn’t come to see you sooner,” he says in an even quieter than his usual soft-spoken voice. “I was caught up with back to back missions and didn’t have much time for anything really,” he adds.

“It’s okay,” she says. “I’m glad to see you doing well. Kuroo told me you’re considered a genius over here,” she chuckles.

“Only because they haven’t met you yet,” he states. Kenma doesn’t say it as a compliment but instead, simply stating a fact. He never shies away from being blunt, even if he’s meeting them for the first time. He doesn’t believe in sugar-coating.

“I’m sure you’ve improved a lot since we last met,” Azumi says with a smile.

Kenma stares blankly at her face. She knows he’s analyzing her face and trying to decipher the emotions she’s trying to hide. He’s been always good at seeing through her. “You’re anxious Mizuki,” he says. “You shouldn’t be though. You’ll be okay, you’re with good people.”

Azumi finds it comforting to hear this from Kenma. She trusts him to tell the truth. “I’ll try not to be,” she simply says.

“Kuroo also left a message with me,” he adds. One of Azumi’s eyebrows raises in curiosity. They didn’t get as much time as she hoped to talk.

“He said, _there’s always time to get funky_ ,” Kenma says with a straight face. Azumi gives him a deadpan look and she can’t help but roll her eyes. “You two never told me what that means,” he comments.

“It’s nothing,” she mutters. She feels disappointed in herself for getting her hopes up that Kuroo actually had something important to tell her. Her nose scrunches and her lips turn into a frown. _It’s always time to Cha Cha Slide isn’t it, Kuroo?_ She regretfully replies in her head.

“Azumi!” Sugawara’s voice interrupts her thoughts. “We’re getting ready to leave now!”

Azumi looks over at Sugawara and nods. She notices him standing with Daichi next to a black SUV and the other Karasuno boys next to a gray hatchback saying their goodbyes to Lev. She turns back to Kenma.

“I guess this is goodbye,” Azumi says sadly.

“It’s okay, we’ll see each other again soon.”

Azumi smiles and strokes the top of Kenma’s head. “Maybe next time we can force Kuroo to watch a Sci-Fi movie with us,” she jokes. Kenma’s face is still void of emotion but she notices his eyes fractionally brighten.

“Let’s do that,” he says.

Azumi threads her arms under his again and wraps him in an embrace. He responds by lightly resting his arms on her back. After a few seconds, she pulls away and turns to walk towards Daichi and Sugawara. Sugawara greets her with a smile.  
  
“I hope you don’t mind riding with us, Azumi. We figured those boys might bother you the whole ride if we left you there with them,” Sugawara chuckles.

Azumi gives him a small smile of appreciation. She sees Kageyama approaching in her peripherals and she turns to face him. He has that weird sad look on his face again and speaks so quietly that she can barely make it out. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” she replies too quickly. She hates how he’s been treating her like she’s a fragile little girl. She frowns at her feet.

He stares at her with a worried look, lifting his hand as if to reach for her hand, but he decides against it. Luckily for him, she doesn’t see the movement. He drops his hand and clenches it by his side.

“I’ll see you back at headquarters then,” he states. He opens the car door for her and waits for her to enter. She simply glances at him and enters the car. He closes it gently after her and turns to enter his own car. Daichi and Sugawara watch the interaction from inside the car but neither comment on it. Daichi starts the car.

Azumi turns to look out the window back at Kenma and Lev. She suddenly feels anxious all over again realizing she has to say good bye to Kenma once more and so soon after reuniting. She pulls the collar of her hoodie up to her nose and quietly inhales. The smell clears her sinuses and calms her jitters. The car starts to move as she waves at Kenma. He timidly waves back.

She watches him until they exit the lot and she squints from the sudden light outside. It wasn’t that bright, but having not seen the sun in several days, it surprises her a little. Sugawara turns around to look at her, “It’s going to be a long drive, so you’re welcome to sleep. I’ll stay up with Daichi,” he smiles.

She nods in acknowledgement and rests her elbow on the door’s arm rest, palm clasping her chin. She stares at the blurry buildings passing by. They eventually leave the city and before she realizes, the sun has set leaving them in darkness. She can vaguely hear Daichi and Sugawara’s discussion regarding what to pick up at the grocery store the next day and she can’t help but feel like she’s in the car with her new parents. The topic of their conversation makes the situation seem so normal and with the help of the hoodie’s comforting scent, she’s able to forget her worries. She continues to look outside, her eyes never anchoring to anything that passes until she eventually falls asleep.

\--

Azumi’s eyes flutter as she wakes up to Sugawara’s soft voice signaling they have arrived. She yawns and rubs her eyes with her knuckles before unbuckling her seatbelt and exiting the car. She looks up and finds herself looking at a large, secluded western-style house. Due to the nighttime darkness, it’s hard to distinguish all of the house’s features. She looks around and notes that they’re in the countryside with no other houses in sight. The only light in the expanse of land is from the house she’s standing in front of. Karasuno headquarters almost looks like a secluded cottage getaway.

“Since Tanaka was driving the other car, they got here much sooner than we did,” Sugawara chuckles. She sees Daichi exiting the house to make a second trip to clear the contents of the trunk. A tall, bulky man with hair tied in a loose bun follows closely behind. Sugawara gestures him over.

“This is Asahi Azumane. He’s one of Karasuno’s oldest members like myself and Daichi.” Azumi notices the tall man also has some facial hair. She can’t help but think that he looks exactly like how she imagined yakuza members to look like. In contrast to her intimidating impression of him, he lowers his head into a polite and timid bow. “And this is Azumi Mizuki, our newest addition,” Sugawara says with a smile. Azumi hesitantly lowers her head in response.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” she says before raising her head.

“The pleasure is mine,” he smiles. “I’ll be helping with the things now, since Daichi is expecting a phone call. If you’ll excuse me.” He quickly heads towards the back of the car.

“I’ll show you to your room, Azumi. Come.” Sugawara gestures her to follow.

They enter the house and the first thing she sees is a living room to her right with two couches and a T.V. She doesn’t get a chance to see anything else as she follows him upstairs. They walk down a short hallway and he opens one of the bedroom doors.

The room is small and simple. It has two single beds separated by a bed stand and a set of drawers across from it. There’s another door on the right to the adjoining bathroom and a small window by the furthest bed allowing the moon’s light to luminate the room.

“I believe Kiyoko is using the bed closest to the bathroom, so the furthest bed belongs to you. I see Kageyama has already dropped off the bag with your things by the window. You’re welcome to unpack and get settled. We’ll call you down when dinner is ready,” he says with a warm smile. “If you have any questions, you can ask any of us,” he says as he makes his way out the room.

Azumi nods in acknowledgement and thanks him. Sugawara leaves with a nod and closes the door.

She makes her way to the furthest bed and notices the towel placed on her bed. She sits beside it and gazes out the window. The bed is stiff but it isn’t hard enough to complain about it. She gazes at the sky and let’s herself enjoy all the stars she was previously unable to see being in a city. She’ll have to ask Sugawara later where exactly they’re located since she slept through the whole ride. She’s been impressed with herself lately with how much she’s been sleeping. Sleeping when she wants to has never been her forte. _I suppose breaking your ribs and bleeding profusely through a hole in your hand can really put you to sleep. I’ll try it more often_.

She flinches to the sound of the door opening and stands up to greet her visitor. It’s a woman in glasses with silky black hair and a beauty mark just by her mouth. She carries herself in a way that makes her seem like royalty, but not in the condescending, overbearing way. She just emanates elegance and beauty, Azumi can’t help but just gape at her.

“You must be Azumi-chan. I’m Kiyoko Shimizu, but just Kiyoko is fine. I suppose we’re roommates from now on,” she smiles. Her smile makes Azumi feel all warm and fuzzy inside. _Is this what it’s like to have a girl crush?_ She embarrassingly asks herself. She feels ridiculously flustered all of a sudden.

“Hi K-Kiyoko-san. It’s nice to meet you,” she barely manages. She mentally slaps at herself for being so awkward for greeting her girl crush with a stutter. If Kiyoko notices her nervousness, she doesn’t comment on it.

“Please, just Kiyoko is fine. I just wanted to pop in to say hello,” she says quickly. “I’ll be heading downstairs now to prep dinner. I’ll send someone up when it’s ready. Just relax and get settled.”

“Thank you,” Azumi squeaks. Kiyoko closes the door after she leaves.

Azumi settles back down to stare at the stars. She finds it helpful to calm her nerves and embarrassment. She glances down at the bag by the foot of her bed. She supposes now is a good time to unpack whatever Kageyama has brought for her.

She pulls out handfuls of clothes. She guesses it’s around 3 sets of clothes and enough underwear for a week. She snorts at the image a flushed Kageyama stuffing in her bras and underwear. The clothes take up the majority of the bag and she has to reach in further to inspect the other items. She hears a familiar rattle and pulls out the source of the noise. It’s a container of the pills for easing her anxiety. She’s grateful to Kuroo for miraculously tracking down the same ones during her stay at Nekoma or else she would’ve been a different kind of mess. Thankfully, Kageyama has prevented that from happening here as well. There’s enough in the container he packed for another few weeks. She’ll have to ask Sugawara to add it to their next grocery run just in case.

The last thing in the largest compartment of the bag was her journal. She doesn’t remember the last time she wrote in it but figures because of it’s worn state, Kageyama thought that she still frequently uses it. She unzips the bag’s smaller compartment and finds a variety of things. The first thing that catches her eye are some photos. The top photo includes a scene at Kuroo’s old apartment. The photo sparks bittersweet memories as it was a surprise birthday party for her, but also the last one her friends celebrated with her before they all left.

Not feeling like reminiscing, she quickly glances at the next two photos. She notes one from high school and the next from junior high. Her breath hitches when she flips to the last photo. She can feel her eyes water as she slowly brushes her thumb over the image of her mom’s smiling face. She remembers her mom encouraging her to bring this specific photo with her to university so that she wouldn’t miss her too much.

However, she discovered she didn’t need the photo to think of her mom when she was at school. Azumi stares more intently at the photo, hoping to etch her mom’s blissful smile into her memory. The way her eyes wrinkle on the edges making her eyes smile with the rest of her face. How her brown hair softly rests on her slim shoulders. She notes that this photo was taken many years ago since her mom wore a sleeveless dress revealing her slender arms. Some time ago, she stopped wearing sleeveless clothes to hide her scars knowing how sad it made Azumi to see them.

Azumi decides to check the remaining contents of the bag. She pulls out a necklace that she usually keeps with her mom’s photo. Her mom had given it to her when she left for university, but she always found it a hassle to remove it all the time for times she wasn’t allowed to wear jewelry. She looks at the small golden crescent moon as it hangs in front of her.

_“I know I’m not the one who named you, but I would’ve chosen Mizuki all over again if it were up to me. The name’s meaning certainly fits you, my beautiful moon.”_ Azumi smiles as she recalls the memory. She doesn’t feel like she’s ready to wear it yet, her mom’s death feeling too fresh and hurtful. Though, she’s grateful Kageyama brought it. She herself had forgotten about the necklace.

She reaches into the bag’s pocket for the last item. She feels plastic packaging and snorts when she realizes what it is. Kageyama packed her a package of tampons. He was told by Sugawara to pack the essentials for her. _Kageyama’s such a boy. An idiot boy._

Her thoughts are disrupted by a light knock on her door. “Come in!”

Hinata peers in with a big grin on his face. “Kiyoko-san told me to call you down for dinner, Azu-chan.”  
  
“I’ll be right down,” she replies. He nods and closes the door.

She gets up and collects her belongings, leaving the clothes on her bed. She opens the top drawer and places the items inside. She stares at the belongings a bit longer and decides to separate the photo of her mom from the others and places it on top of the drawers. She takes a last look at it before heading downstairs.


	5. Ramen

Azumi follows Tanaka’s booming laughter down the hallway into a dining room. She is overwhelmed by staggering number of stimuli when she enters the room. The room is brightly lit by a chandelier hanging over the large table. There are a bunch of bodies scurrying around setting up the table, all bumping into her lightly. Multiple conversations are going on at the same time which made it difficult for her to tune into any of them.

She spots Sugawara waving at her and gesturing for her to sit down next to him. She notices that Daichi is sitting at the head of the table with Sugawara on his right. She hesitantly sits down. Azumi’s gaze switches rapidly across all the familiar and new faces as they enter and exit the room. “I should help,” she states.

“Don’t worry about it, Azumi. It’s your first night, you’re allowed to relax tonight,” Sugawara says, voice barely heard over the chatter. The bodies start to settle into their seats. Azumi ignores Tanaka, Nishinoya and Hinata who fight for the seat next to her. Instead, she watches Kageyama quietly sit down in the seat in front of her. He glances at her and notices her staring. He turns his head away so quickly Azumi doesn’t even have a chance to react to the eye contact. Her scowl mirrors his.

Kiyoko enters the room holding a large roasted chicken which catches everyone’s eye. Tanaka and Nishinoya suddenly stop fighting Hinata for the seat next to Azumi and rush to help Kiyoko. Hinata grins as he slides into the seat next to Azumi and begins making fun of Kageyama’s frowning face.

“Kiyoko! You should’ve told us to carry this. Let us do it!” They bump hips and shoulders fighting to carry the chicken Kiyoko is carrying.

“It’s okay,” Kiyoko says with her angelic voice. “But if you could distribute the vegetables and rice for everyone, that would be helpful. I’ll go grab the second chicken.”

“Yes, of course Kiyoko!” Tanaka and Nishinoya bark out at the same time and both rush back into the kitchen.

Azumi looks around at the rest of the table. She notices there are less people than she anticipated and that there are more chairs than people at the table. She sees three unfamiliar faces further away from her, immersed in conversation.

“Ah,” Sugawara speaks. “You still haven’t met some of our other members,” he says in a quieter tone that only Azumi can hear. “Oi! Listen up!” he yells. There is no reaction. Hinata and Kageyama are arguing about something, Nishinoya and Tanaka are still fighting each other to help Kiyoko. The three unknown men are still absorbed in their discussion.  
  
“Listen up, everyone!” Daichi’s voice suddenly bellows from the head of the table. All conversations cease and everyone turns to look at Daichi. Azumi can hear an audible and synchronized gulp from everyone. Daichi looks to Sugawara and nods.

“Ah, thanks Daichi…” Sugawara nods in thanks. “As you all know, we are welcoming a new member today. This is Azumi Mizuki,” he leans into the table to make eye contact with everyone. “Please be kind to her,” he finishes.

Azumi feels her skin grow hot from all the pairs of eyes locked onto her. She somehow feels more nervous speaking to a group of people than when she fought against Date Tech. It seems only dire situations bring out her confidence.

She swallows, “It’s,” she clears her throat. “It’s nice to meet you all,” she says as she lowers her head.

“The three at the end are Ennoshita, Kinoshita and Narita,” Sugawara gestures to the three at the end. They nod when their name is announced. “We’re missing four more people, but you’ll meet them once they’re back.” Tanaka, Nishinoya and Kiyoko take their seats, Kiyoko sandwiched in between the two men.

“Thank you for the food,” Daichi announces. Everyone echoes and begins eating.

The scene of everyone eating and talking during dinner makes Azumi shift in her seat. _It feels so normal_ , she thinks. _They just seem like one big family_.

Sugawara nudges her to eat more and shovels more food onto her plate. Hinata starts to talk to her and asks her about TV shows and movies she’s seen. She simply nods or shakes her head, occasionally adding a, “That’s interesting, Hinata”. She lets him talk to his hearts content. The only time he stops is when Kageyama and him fight over food and they shout insults at each other. It makes Azumi smile. _This is nice_ , she thinks.

Azumi catches herself staring at Kageyama sometimes. Even though his face annoys her, she finds her eyes gravitate there every now and then. She notices he’s the only one drinking a glass of milk in contrast to cups of orange juice or water. She quietly laughs to herself; he really hasn’t changed.

Dinner finishes and Sugawara shoos her upstairs before she has a chance to help clean up. She figures it would be a good time to shower so she randomly picks a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt that Kageyama packed and grabs the towel from her bed.

When Azumi enters the bathroom, she realizes it’s the first time she’s seeing herself in the mirror in a week. She looks quite disgusting. Her hair is oily and sticking together, she has healing cuts all over her face, her cheeks have hollowed, and she looks thinner. She begins to undress and notices the bruises scattered across her body. She has a scab on her left arm from the grazed bullet and her abdomen is still purple from the repeated blows.

Azumi climbs into the shower, being careful to avoid exposing her left hand to the water and lets the hot water melt her skin. Her mind starts to whirl with various thoughts. It hasn’t really hit her how different her life will be now. She knows she was going to end up here eventually because of her birth father, but the ambiguity of his story doesn’t really spark her interest at the moment. She has more urgent things to worry about.

Sugawara mentioned to her briefly during dinner about training with various members in Karasuno. She knows she’ll have to work hard to understand how this life works and learn how to fight properly. _Those combat classes I went to afterschool won’t cut it anymore,_ she thinks to herself. She has to be strong enough to protect herself and not drag her team down. She has to learn how to be tough, tough enough to hurt others and take lives.

She runs her fingers through her wet and knotted hair. _I have to work my hardest from now on. I have to be strong. I don’t want to be weak. I don’t want to be weak like when I couldn’t protect Mom back then. I don’t want to be weak like when I couldn’t defend myself against Date Tech._ _I don’t want to feel helpless ever again._

She takes a deep breath before stepping out of the shower. She’s discovered newfound confidence. She feels refreshed. She feels like she’s become a new person starting today.

Azumi enters her new bedroom and finds Kiyoko inside already. “How was your shower?” she kindly asks.

“It was good, thanks. I can’t remember the last time I showered,” Azumi embarrassingly admits. She scratches the back of her head and turns a bit pink admitting it to Kiyoko.

Kiyoko simply smiles. “Would you like me to take a look at your wounds? I’m not as experienced as Suga but I can still help.”

“That’s fine, maybe tomorrow,” Azumi politely declines. She makes her way over to sit on her bed and crosses her legs facing Kiyoko. She watches the woman pace back and forth as she organizes her things. “How long have you been with Karasuno?”

Kiyoko stops sorting out her clothes for her shower momentarily and pauses to think. “Hm, maybe several years now. I joined at the same time as Daichi, Suga and Asahi,” she states.

Azumi nods. “Are you the only girl here?” she hesitantly asks.

Kiyoko chuckles. “No. There are two other girls who are out on a mission right now. You’ll get to meet them in a few days,” she smiles. “They’re a lot more energetic than the two of us, haha. Just so it’s not a surprise when you meet them.”

Azumi nods. She can’t help but feel excited to meet them. She’s spent all of university surrounded by boys because of the program she’s in.

“You should rest. I’m going to take a shower now. I’ll try not to disturb you on my way out,” Kiyoko says softly. “Good night, Azumi-chan.”

Azumi lowers her head slightly, “Good night, Kiyoko.”

Kiyoko quickly exits and closes the bathroom door behind her. Azumi gets up from her spot on the bed and tries to dry her hair a bit more. She realizes she can’t quite wring her hair with only one hand, so she settles back into bed with hair wetter than she’d like. She sits on the bed to gaze at the stars again and focuses on her own breathing. She slips her body under the covers and turns her head so that she can continue staring at the stars. Eventually her breathing slows, and her eyes flutter shut.

\--

Azumi wakes up to gentle nudges and Kiyoko’s angelic smile brightened by the window. Kiyoko tells her that lunch is ready for her downstairs. Azumi groggily nods and rolls onto her back. She had trouble sleeping through the night and woke up multiple times. This was normal for her; she figured she was only able to sleep so well over the last week because of her body demanding to recover. Now that her body wasn’t in a state of panic anymore, it meant it liked to bother her and keep her awake overnight.

Azumi sighs and drags her feet to the bathroom. She brushes her teeth and quickly fixes her hair the best she can before heading downstairs. _The house is surprisingly quiet… maybe everyone woke up earlier to run their own errands_ , she thinks. She walks down the hallway into the kitchen. She’s never been to the kitchen before and the first thing that catches her eye is the tall black-haired male looming over the stove. Kageyama turns around with a jolt.

“Oh, Aiz-Azumi. Hi. Good morning. Or afternoon I guess,” he winces. “Sit over there,” he gestures to one of the highchairs by the kitchen island. His face lights up with an idea and he walks around the island to pull out one of the chairs for her. He forgets he’s holding a pair of chopsticks and drops it when it catches onto something. The chopstick drops with a loud clatter, followed by an exasperated sigh from Kageyama. He bends over to pick it up and hits his head on the edge of the island when he stands up. He aggressively grunts.

Azumi snorts and tries to stifle her laughter. “You’re a clumsy idiot, you know that?” She’s unable to hide her grin. Kageyama makes sure to face away from her and makes his way back to the stove, head pounding from the impact and face red from the embarrassment. Azumi notes how unusual it is for Kageyama to refrain from snapping back at her.

She notices a random candle stick on the island. It seems out of place in contrast to the utensils and the basket of fruits, but she doesn’t comment on it. She glances at Kageyama, who appears to be cooking. _Or attempting to cook,_ she smirks to herself. Azumi never thought she’d ever see Kageyama cooking. It seemed like something he’d be too frustrated with to learn.

“Where is everyone?”

“Daichi and Suga are out running errands. I think groceries and other things. Everyone else is either in the backyard or basement training.”

“Oh. I see,” is all she says. Kageyama releases an exasperated sigh before turning around to place a bowl of noodles in front of her. The steam warms her face and the smell makes her stomach growl. She realizes she’s starting at a bowl of ramen.

Azumi looks up at Kageyama to see him scowling at the bowl like it hurt him. He then stares back at her, eyebrows raised with an expectant look on his face, hoping to catch a reaction from her. She’s still in shock at the thought that he could make food like this and just simply stares back at him in awe. He looks at the bowl, cheeks turning a little pink.

“I asked Kiyoko how to make ramen… Since your mom always said it’s your favourite. I thought I’d make it for your mom too.”

He quickly glances at her and turns around to rummage into several drawers. He pulls something small out and grabs a cup. He picks up the candle stick and places it in the cup to light it. Azumi just watches Kageyama with a look of amusement as she’s still not quite sure where he’s going with this one candle.

“We don’t have incense sticks here,” he says quietly. “So… I hope your mom is okay with just a candle.”

It finally clicks. The ramen, the lack of incense sticks. He set this up to honour her mom. She simply stares at the small flame burning peacefully and feels her eyes water. She swallows and feels her heart clench. She told herself she wouldn’t cry over her mom’s death anymore, but the unexpected gesture makes it difficult. She feels her tears develop but they don’t quite form because of sadness. It’s the first time she feels happy thinking about her mom since she died. She remembers how happy it made her mom when she ate her ramen. Warmth develops in the pit of her stomach and it slowly spreads through the rest of her body. It wasn’t an uncomfortable warmth like when she needs to kick the covers away from her, but a soothing kind of warmth where she feels reassured and comforted. Kageyama helped her remember her mom’s love.

Kageyama turns to place a smaller bowl of ramen by the candle as an offering. “I’m not sure how much she eats,” he hesitantly says.

Azumi can’t help but smile at his comment. “Did you make a bowl for yourself?” she asks.

“I did, but I figured I should give you time with her.” His eyes are fixed on the smaller bowl.

“It’s fine, join us,” Azumi says with a soft smile. Kageyama pauses and visibly contemplates the option. Eventually, he nods. He turns around to prepare a bowl for himself and returns with a larger bowl. Instead of taking a seat next to her, he decides to remain standing across from her.

“Thank you for the food,” Azumi quietly says. She picks up a pair of chopsticks and takes a bite. Kageyama watches her carefully gauging a reaction. _It’s not bad… but it’s not great either_ , she thinks to herself. Her lips unintentionally twist at the taste.

“I’m sorry it’s bad. I don’t really cook. Kiyoko said it tasted okay when she checked it for me but she also didn’t want any so I guess it’s not really okay,” Kageyama begins to ramble. “But I figured it would be a good and bad thing if it turned out badly since your mom’s ramen wasn’t… Not that it was bad! Just not… something I’d ask for seconds,” he concludes weakly. His eyes flick to the candle and his face twists with guilt having realized he just said it out loud to her mom.

Azumi bursts out into sudden, genuine laughter and it startles Kageyama. Eventually, the edge of his lip turns slightly upwards and he can’t help but feel warm seeing her genuine laugh. It makes him smile wider when she grasps her side, unable to stop laughing even though it hurts her. It has been a long time since he last heard her laugh like this. He didn’t know seeing someone laugh could make him feel like the happiest person in the world. He was so relieved with himself that he didn’t screw this up like he usually does.

Azumi finally manages to collect herself as she wipes a tear from her eye. “It’s perfect, Tobio.”

They both freeze at the use of Kageyama’s first name and look at each other with bewildered eyes. Azumi feels flustered for being lost in the moment and using his given name so casually like she used to. Kageyama clears his throat and looks down to focus on his bowl. He glances at her one last time before he starts eating. Azumi feeling grateful that he didn’t comment on it, resumes eating as well.

Once they are halfway through their meals, Kageyama breaks the silence, “How come you go by Azumi now?”

Azumi continues to eat and speaks in a matter of fact way, “Sometime in high school, my parents split. I go by my mom’s last name now.” Kageyama nods and resumes eating again.

When they approach the end of their meal, he is the first to speak again, “When I uh, went to your apartment to get your things… I found a pair of keys. I’m assuming it’s the keys for your home in Miyagi.” Azumi stares at him with interest, not sure where he’s going with this conversation.

“I was going to pack it for you… but I was worried that you’d impulsively run off to your house and wreak havoc. So, I’m holding onto it. Just so you know,” he says without looking at her.

Azumi hums, “You’re probably right about me running home right away and possibly going maniacal.” She picks up her bowl to drink the last of the broth. She places the bowl down with a thud. “How about I ask you to take me there once I’m ready to?”

He nods. Azumi notices that he’s eating a lot slower than he usually does. _Maybe he can’t stomach his own cooking,_ she smirks. She watches him eat and observes his features. She suddenly realizes how much he’s grown from their junior high days. His jaw line is more defined, his Adam’s apple is more prominent, his cheek bones are sharper. He’s managed to look even more handsome. In the end, her eyes still gravitate to the dark blue eyes she was so familiar with and can’t help but think they’re beautiful. Azumi blushes and clears her throat. _That face isn’t beautiful,_ she tells herself. _That face is a devil’s face. That face annoys me._ She huffs and drives her chin upwards. Those dark blue eyes glance at her with a questioning look but shrugs it off as nothing.

He finishes eating and brings their bowls to the sink. Azumi continues to watch him, noting how his broad shoulders flex every once in awhile as he washes their bowls. She forgets her previous comment and feels her heart warm looking at him. She can’t help but feel like her feelings for her first love are beginning to blossom once more.

“Hey Kageyama?”

“Hmm,” he grunts.

“Thank you,” she says quietly.

Kageyama stiffens and his arms stop moving. He turns off the water and turns around to look at her.

“For this,” Azumi starts. “And for saving me before.” She feels uncomfortable looking at him now and stares at the little flame instead. Her face feels warm.

Kageyama looks startled initially and eventually relaxes. He nods and pauses for a beat. “Grateful isn’t a good look for you, Azumi,” he says with an arrogant smirk.

Suddenly, all of Azumi’s warm feelings wash away and her face twists into a scowl. _What was I thinking? That’s the devil,_ she huffs yet again.

“Shut up, dumbass.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If any of you are ATLA fans, I was channeling my awkward Zuko to write Kageyama! They're both such cool yet awkward characters haha so cute


	6. Reunion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So my broken wrist from a bike fall a month ago went misdiagnosed and because of it, I had to have surgery a few days ago... Definitely an experience I would not like to have again lol. Fortunately for this fic, I already have chapters lined up that I wrote from before so I'll still be posting relatively consistently :) This chapter is shorter than usual so I'll be posting the next one a bit sooner!

Azumi anxiously bites her nails as she sits on a bed waiting for Sugawara to finish charting. She’s currently inside Karasuno’s infirmary which included a bed, desk and shelf with medical supplies inside a simple small room. She thought her bedroom with Kiyoko was already small and simple, but this was even smaller.

Instead of drilling holes in Sugawara’s back with her eyes, she tries to distract herself by looking out the window instead. She always found looking at the vast sky helpful in calming her down when she was anxious. She thickly swallows, hoping Kageyama’s ramen remains in her stomach.

Sugawara had just finished assessing her to determine the approximate recovery times for her injuries. She knows she’d be a fool to hope that good news was going to be the only thing she’ll receive.

Sugawara swivels around from the desk and rolls up to her with her charts. Azumi whips her head to look back at Sugawara, feeling her chest immediately tighten again when she looks at his worried face. His eyebrows are slightly furrowed and he’s biting his bottom lip as he repeatedly taps his pen on the page. After what feels like hours, he finally looks up at Azumi. “Good news or bad news first?”

“Bad,” she says quickly. She puts on a brave face hoping it’ll translate to actually feeling brave. She honestly just wants to get this over with.

Sugawara looks back down at his notes. “Well, your most severe injury as you already know, is your hand. It’s healing well but it also takes the longest to heal. It usually takes around 12 weeks for something like that to return to normal,” he pauses, lips pursed into a thin line. “And by normal, it’s not the normal you’re used to.” He bites his lip again and looks up at her. “You’ll need to repeatedly work on gaining mobility back before thinking about gaining the strength back. Even after all that work, you’re still looking at a lot of joint stiffness, scar tissue, risk of re-tear, reduced grip strength… the list goes on,” he says with a weary look.

Azumi gulps as she glances at her bandaged hand. It’s a lot less swollen and red but she still hasn’t been able to move it. The constant radiating pain hasn’t given her a chance to sleep well at night either,

“In terms of fighting… it’s unlikely you’ll be able to fight with that hand. At most, you can probably grip things, but it’ll be hard for you to maintain control or strength over the object,” he starts again. “We’ll have to think of an alternative so that your left arm isn’t completely useless in a fight. It’ll be easy to spot by an opponent too if you dominantly fight with your right.”

Azumi bites the inside of her mouth until she tastes the bitter taste of iron. It frustrates her that she’s put at yet an additional disadvantage to complement her lack of skill.

“Onto better news… your collapsed lung is almost fully healed. You’ll still have to take it easy the next week so that it can fully recover and allow your breathing to return to normal. It’s hard for me to tell exactly how your ribs are doing without any scans, but they usually take six weeks to recover. Seeing how well your body is recovering from your other injuries, I’m optimistic it could be shorter.”

Azumi nods and considers the information. Her lung and ribs shouldn’t interfere with her ability to fight if she gives it proper rest. _That’ll be hard to do_ , she muses. _I hate sitting around doing nothing._

“That doesn’t mean you can’t start your training though,” Sugawara states, the edge of his lips angling up a little.

Azumi’s eyes perk up at the idea.

Sugawara laughs. “Antsy to start, aren’t you? However, I’m not talking about the training you’re thinking of. You’ll need intelligence training; learning about other yakuza groups, what kinds of missions we take, how to carry out said missions. It’s best if you can get a handle of this before we fill you in on the situation with your birth father,” he nervously laughs. “It’s quite a complicated situation,” he shrugs.

Azumi’s smile drops into a frown. Her newfound energy quickly fades. It makes sense that she becomes familiar with these things to succeed, but it didn’t really cross her mind that it would connect back to her father. She wasn’t exactly enthusiastic to learn about him. Her family situation with only one set of parents was complicated enough.

“You’ll be getting that training from either myself, Ennoshita or Kiyoko. Just whoever is available to train you. Today you’ll be with Ennoshita,” he smiles. “Try not to give him a hard time.”

Azumi is dismissed and sent to the dining room to wait for her first lesson with Ennoshita. This entire time, all she thought about was the fighting and forgot about the other aspects involved in being a part of the yakuza. She still needs to be smart. The smartest fighter will always win over the strongest fighter. She sighs. She can’t help but think it’ll be boring stuff.

Ennoshita eventually stumbles into the dining room and drops a stack of folders and loose paper onto the table. “Sorry for keeping you waiting Azumi-chan. I had to gather a bunch of documents for you to learn,” he says with a kind smile.

Azumi eyes the large stack of papers and internally cringes _. Yakuza document all their information? It looks so organized,_ she thinks to herself. _I bet that idiot Kageyama doesn’t actually remember all of this._ She can’t help but brood as she stares at the stack of papers. She can’t wait until her physical training starts.

Ennoshita notices her frowning at the stack and quietly chuckles. “You have Suga to thank for his uncontrollable urge to document and organize everything. I’ll start you off with some basic info and leave you be to study.” He pulls out a thick folder and spreads out several documents on the table. “I guess the first part I’ll introduce to you are the roles in Karasuno.” He gestures to one of the sheets, “We don’t have a formal document outlining the responsibilities of each role, but we can use these cases to describe what each role does.”

Azumi pulls the sheet closer so she can read the little words. She notices a photo of a man beside a box at the top of the page. Inside the box, is a small description identifying the objective of the mission. For this one, it says, “Eliminate target and associated members.”

“So, for this mission we were told to take down the main target. That’s the man in the picture,” his finger tracing over the photo. “We were also told to take down the people who work for him. This man was involved in distributing counterfeit variations of a dangerous drug and selling it below the supplier’s market price.”

Azumi nods and skims through the rest of the document while Ennoshita continues talking. He explains how mission requests are received and negotiated by either Daichi or Suga. It then gets passed onto Asahi and Kiyoko who determine who will be working the mission. Once the team is assembled, the team gets debriefed on the mission and assigned their roles.

Ennoshita expands on the designated roles. Intelligence agents gather more information on the target, their accomplices and operating locations. They also guide those on-site and support them by manipulating digital systems to allow them access to the places they need to get to. Undercover spies gather information from the target or accomplices directly by engaging with them in public locations under different identities. Elite snipers simply take down targets as they are the most skilled in precision and accuracy in shooting at any range. He explains that it’s important for everyone to be familiar and skilled enough to perform well in each role as adjustments are made when people are injured. He adds that because Azumi is new, she will likely work as an undercover spy to start. She wonders which main roles the other members of Karasuno have, but doesn’t think too deeply about it.

Ennoshita moves on and deconstructs his tower of folders and documents by organizing them into piles. One pile includes information on what they call ‘The Big Four’, which are the four biggest yakuza groups. They include Nekoma, Fukurodani, Aoba Josai and Shiratorizowa who function in Tokyo and Miyagi. Another pile includes big missions Karasuno has taken to allow Azumi to familiarize herself with the process of a mission. The last pile includes big names in the field such as leading manufacturers and distributors for various drugs and weapons.

Azumi is told she has a week to read through and thoroughly understand and memorize the main points. He tells her she is welcome to ask him any questions if they come up. As an intelligence agent, he has his own researching to do upstairs and leaves with a sympathetic smile. He suddenly stops and turns, remembering to mention one last thing.

“Oh by the way Azumi, I don’t know if Suga mentioned this already… Unique to Karasuno, each of our members gets the same tattoo. It’s a symbol of how we came to be and how it unites us as a family. It’s a reminder of our strength and our connection. But, to avoid identifying ourselves very easily to our enemies, we all have it in discrete locations.”

Azumi finds it neat that everyone will always have something to remind themselves who they’re fighting for.

“Can I see yours?”

“Oh yeah, of course.” Ennoshita quickly pulls up his sleeve and his right hand reaches up to the back of his neck. Azumi catches a glimpse of a small, black symbol on the inside of his bicep. She leans in closer to see what it is.

“It’s a crow,” he says with a small smile and looks down at his inner bicep. “We may have started from nothing, but we have the ability to rise up. We have the ability to fly.”

Azumi’s eyes stay fixed on the little crow. It’s subtle enough that you won’t immediately be able to tell what it is but if you stare long enough, there’s no mistaking that it’s a crow.

“What happens if you leave Karasuno?”

Ennoshita’s smile quickly fades and he slowly rolls his sleeve back down. “Well, if you leave, it means you’re burning bridges with us. You won’t be considered family anymore.” He clears his throat and turns to leave. “If you leaves, your tattoo gets burned off.”

\--

Azumi hasn’t gotten up from her seat in several hours. This meant her brain was demanding rest and her bladder demanding relief. Despite the headache, she managed to absorb a lot of information. Even though she wasn’t particularly excited to learn, she found studying easy. Her friends would always complain about how quickly she picked things up at school despite being asleep most of the time. Although, learning quickly didn’t mean the content was particularly interesting.

She yawns and rubs her eyes. She extends her arms above her head to stretch and looks out the window. The sun was now a blaring orange which meant dinner prep would start soon. Her thoughts can’t help but trace back to the conversation she had with Ennoshita. In a way, it would be clear to identify someone who left Karasuno. She wonders where everyone else’s tattoos are.

She suddenly hears a car pulling into the gravel driveway, sparking her curiosity. She was sure everyone was home already.

She walks towards the window to take a look outside. Due to where the driveway is situated, the angle was hard for her to see the car without pressing her face against the glass. She could faintly make out two tall figures approaching the house and a third opening the backseat door. With her breath fogging up the glass, she couldn’t see their faces.

“They’re back!!” an excited Nishinoya screams from upstairs. His quick footsteps are accompanied by another excited Karasuno member and the vibrations from their steps rumble through the house as they run down the stairs.

Azumi assumes Hinata is the other excited member. _It’s cute how excited they are for someone to come home_ , she smiles to herself. She hears the new members enter headquarters with quiet chatter and loud greetings from Nishinoya and Hinata. She paces around the room contemplating a good time to enter the hallway. She’s excited to meet them but also nervous about having the attention drawn to her again being the newest addition.

She hears Hinata call for both Sugawara and Kiyoko in a more urgent tone, his voice echoing through the house. _Maybe someone is hurt_ , she thinks. Azumi forgets about her nerves and walks out to assess the situation. She sees Nishinoya, Hinata and a third tall, olive hair-coloured figure push an even taller blonde figure into a seat. They haven’t noticed her presence yet.  
  
“I’m fine, it’s not even that bad,” a low voice grumbles from behind the three bodies.

“Tsukki, stop being stubborn. You’ve already overexerted yourself enough.”

Azumi’s eyes widen. She’s heard that voice say that name many times before.

“Noya, could you help Yachi? She’ll probably need some help bringing Sato in too,” the familiar kind voice speaks again.

Nishinoya nods and rushes out the door, leaving the three men with Azumi hesitantly hiding in the shadows. Hinata notices her from the corner of his eye and turns to look at her with a face of concern. “Ah, Azu-chan. Could you help us grab Sugawara or Kiyoko? We’re going to need their help.”

The olive haired figure follows Hinata’s line of vision and turns to look at her. Azumi stares back at him mouth gaping and feet nailed to the ground. _It has to be a coincidence, right?_ His eyes widen and his jaw slackens. He quickly recovers and his gaping becomes a bright smile, “Aizawa! What are you doing here?” He approaches her and wraps her in a firm hug.

Azumi hesitantly returns the hug. Her mind is whirling with so many questions that her brain might short circuit. When she’s released from the hug, she looks past the figure to stare at the dumbfounded blonde. He’s usually unable to express anything other than his resting bitch face and scowl.

“Wait, ‘Aizawa’? Her name is Azumi… isn’t it?” a confused Hinata asks, he looks up at the tall male and glances back at Azumi.

The question startles Azumi and forces her back to present day. It takes her a moment to process the question. “I changed last names. It’s a long story,” she quickly brushes off. She looks at the male in front of her, “I should be asking you the same Yama-chan. I guess you’re unfortunately still stuck with Mr. Grumpy Pants over there.”

The blonde named Mr. Grumpy Pants reinforces the name by giving Azumi a scowl. “Seems like we’re both unlucky since I have to see your stupid face again,” he retorts. She doesn’t notice his hand gripping a poorly bandaged and bloodied thigh.

“Be nice, Tsukki!,” Yamaguchi scolds. “We haven’t seen her in so long.” He turns back to look down at Azumi and smiles, “You look well, Aizawa.”

Azumi returns the warm smile. “You managed to grow even taller Yama-chan. My neck hurts looking up at you,” she chuckles. _He must’ve grown another couple of inches and his chin is sharper than I remember._ Yamaguchi nervously laughs and scratches the back of his head.

Azumi’s smile falls when she recalls a previous conversation. “Wait, when you said to help Yachi… are we talking about the same Yachi?”

As if appearing when announced, a blonde girl appears with Nishinoya, each having an arm supporting a slender and tall woman. The woman barks at both of them insisting she doesn’t need the help. Although she is learning forward with her weight supported by both Yachi and Nishinoya, Azumi can tell she would be taller than both of them if she stood up straight. She flicks her black silky hair out of her face as she looks up and a familiar pair of violet eyes lock on to Azumi’s.

Even though it’s been almost a decade since they last saw each other, she knew who it was immediately. It was her best friend, her person, her other half. The tired violet eyes widen with shock and then sparkle with her smile.

“Is that you, Zuzu?”


	7. Reconnection

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick update as promised!

Azumi aggressively chops vegetables as her brain is once again, overloaded with questions, thoughts, and speculations. Is it a coincidence that all three people she hung out with in high school are working for Karasuno? Or that her childhood best friend is also working for Karasuno? Why is it that everyone she’s close with ends up joining the yakuza? Why would anyone voluntarily choose this lifestyle? Maybe they didn’t choose. Maybe they were forced into it like her. But what were the chances?

“Azumi!!”

Azumi is startled out of her thoughts and stops chopping. She turns to the voice that called for her.

A concerned Hinata stares at her, brows slightly furrowed and lips pursed into a thin line. “I called your name so many times. I thought you just didn’t want to respond to the nickname.”

“Sorry,” Azumi meekly offers as her eyes drift to the ground. She didn’t realize she was so absorbed in her thoughts. Hinata was probably standing next to her the whole time and she didn’t even notice.

“It’s okay. I was just going to offer to swap tasks with you. I didn’t think you’d be okay to cut vegetables with your left hand being hurt.” He eyes Azumi’s hand questioningly. “I didn’t even know you could grip things yet.”

Azumi quickly glances at her bandaged hand. Both her hands were still resting on the cutting board holding objects. Her right hand was still gripping the knife tightly while three of her fingers on her left were lightly curled around the carrot she was cutting. “I didn’t know I could grip things either.” She was slightly impressed with herself, even if she was just grasping the carrot gingerly with three fingers and the heel of her palm.

“Maybe it’ll be safer if we switch?” Hinata offers. “So you don’t stab another hole in the same hand?” he nervously chuckles, unsure how she’ll take the joke.

“Sure, thanks Hinata,” Azumi casually answers, her mind too occupied with other matters to catch his joke. She places the knife onto the cutting board and leaves the counter to sort out the other ingredients they need for tonight’s dinner.

\--

_“Yui?” Azumi manages to spit out._

_“Holy shit, I can’t believe it’s you!” The violet eyes crinkled into a brighter smile. She releases her hold from Yachi and Nishinoya’s shoulders and limps aggressively across the entrance to hug Azumi._

_"Okay, how does everyone know Azu-chan already? She just got here yesterday!” Hinata exclaims as he frantically glances at everyone in the hallway. “Also, Zuzu is such a cute name! Can we call her that too?”_

_“They all know her already? How is that possible?” Nishinoya asks, surprise matching Hinata’s. “Also, Zuzu is super cute! I can’t believe we didn’t think of that Shoyo!” He slaps Hinata’s shoulder a little too hard as he flashes a bright smile. Hinata nervously laughs along with him and reaches up to rub the sore spot._

_“Well, we met her in high school. I’m not sure how Sato knows her. They seem really close too,” Yamaguchi comments. Everyone’s eyes drift to the two women laughing and hugging each other._

_Rumbling footsteps are heard as someone runs down from upstairs. “You guys called for me?” a startled Sugawara appears. His eyes follow everyone’s gaze and he notices the hugging duo. His mouth gapes open and his eyebrows raise in surprise. “They know each other?”_

_“You didn’t know either Suga? We were just talking about it right now,” Nishinoya replies quickly._

_The women finally break from their embrace but continue to clasp onto each other’s shoulders, completely ignoring everyone else there. If anyone stared closely enough, they’d be able to see their eyes sparkle from tears of happiness._

_“You look exactly the same! But also, not…” Azumi laughs as she rubs her eyes quickly with her knuckle. “You look even prettier than I remember!”_

_Sato laughs as she also rubs her eyes. “You didn’t grow at all Zuzu! You’re so small and cute!” Azumi’s happy face drops into a small pout, having been called out for still being short._

_Yachi suddenly pulls Sato away from Azumi and forces her into a chair. “You shouldn’t be standing, silly!” She looks at Sugawara, “She messed up her ankle again. It’s pretty bad this time.”_

_She then looks at Azumi and her eyes soften, “I also can’t believe you’re here.” She gives her a bright smile that makes Azumi feel warm and fuzzy inside. She hurries over and gives Azumi a tight hug. “I’m glad we get to see each other again.”_

_Azumi is not used to hugging this many people in a span of ten minutes. It usually makes her uncomfortable being physically affectionate since she grew up without a lot of it. However, the hug makes her happy, nonetheless. At some point in her life, these people were her closest friends and she hasn’t seen them in a long time. She returns the hug and smiles as she comfortably rests her chin onto her friend’s shoulder._

_“I have to check up on everyone, so you’ll have to save your reunion for later Azumi,” Sugawara states in an apologetic tone. “You should start dinner prep with Hinata. Narita and Kinoshita will be joining you shortly. Kiyoko will head over once she’s done here.”_

_Hinata nods and looks at Azumi, waiting for her to follow._

_“Nishinoya, find Kiyoko so she can treat Sato’s ankle while I deal with Tsukishima’s leg. Yamaguchi, Yachi, please help me bring Tsukishima and Sato upstairs,” Sugawara instructs._

_A ‘Yes, Boss’ is heard from everyone as they scatter to their designated duties. Azumi needed a light nudge from Hinata to start walking, unable to break her gaze from the people she had just been reunited with._

\--

Kiyoko eventually makes her way to the kitchen after assessing Sato’s ankle. She helps supervise and instructs Azumi, Hinata, Narita and Kinoshita on how to cook tonight’s dinner as the four of them have subpar cooking expertise. Bothered by Hinata’s inability to keep food from flying out of the pan, she eventually takes over the stir frying from him and dismisses them all to set the table. Despite the instruction, Azumi lingers in the kitchen and meekly stands next to Kiyoko as they both watch her chopsticks expertly scrape the pan.

“Do you know…” Azumi gulps and her lips press into a thin line. She starts again more confidently, “Do you think it’s a coincidence that my three friends in high school and Kageyama are all working with Karasuno now?”

Kiyoko hums as she processes the question. Her gaze remains fixed on her wooden spoon and she shows no signs of disturbance. “No, I don’t think it’s a coincidence,” she simply states.

Azumi stays silent as she considers Kiyoko’s answer _. I remember Daichi mentioning way back that he knew Kageyama before he joined Karasuno. Maybe he knew all of them already before they joined Karasuno… Maybe he met them in highschool…_ Her eyebrows furrows as she thinks. She begins to chew on her nails absentmindedly. _That doesn’t explain Yui though… she didn’t go to our high school…_

She won’t deny that it bothers her that they’re all here, but it also somehow comforts her. She’s curious to know why they joined but she also doesn’t want to listen to them justify why they would voluntarily join the yakuza. She tries to brush the negative thought away. For now, she just wants to be glad that she gets to be with them again.

\--

Azumi leans against the doorframe between the dining room and kitchen and watches the members of Karasuno shuffle in and take their seats. She notes that this time, all the seats will be filled. _This is probably what a big family Christmas dinner looks like,_ she smiles to herself. She’s never been to one before, but this is how she’d imagine it. It looks just like in the movies.

She sees Yachi help a limping Sato into the room and they both flash her bright smiles.

“You’re going to sit right in between us, Zuzu! We have so much catching up to do!” Sato exclaims while shaking a pointed finger at Azumi from across the room. Yachi struggles to help her into her seat, unable to hold an overly excited woman. Other than her limp, she shows no signs of being injured. Her energy levels are as high as ever.

Everyone eventually sits, Azumi in between Sato and Yachi as promised. Daichi signals the commencement of eating by giving his thanks for the food, with everyone echoing. Everyone digs in and helps themselves to the food Azumi helped prepare.

As Azumi takes a bite of a side dish, she notices Kageyama stand up and reach over from across the table to place a variety of food onto Sato’s plate. _It’s probably because she can’t stand up and reach for her own food,_ Azumi thinks. She looks at Sato, who doesn’t bat an eye at the gesture. A part of her is glad that her childhood friends are still friendly with each other despite what happened between her and Kageyama in the past. She’s glad Sato found Kageyama again since Azumi herself wasn’t able to be there for her.

Sato notices Azumi staring at her and gives her a subtle smile, drastically contrasting her usual bright but candid smile. Sato has always been the chattier one in their friendship and thus appropriately assumes her role. She starts talking about anything she could think of. Similar to Sato, Yachi talks endlessly every time Sato takes a break. _Now I get what Kiyoko said about their energy levels being higher than hers and mine,_ Azumi muses.

Being sandwiched between both Sato and Yachi meant Azumi never really had a chance to talk. It was like last night’s dinner, except Hinata was replaced with these two girls. She realizes why she got along with Yachi so easily in high school. It was probably because Yachi and Sato both share the talkative roles in their friendship. It appears Azumi is attracted to the same bubbly personalities when it comes to her friends.

Azumi doesn’t mind all the chatter though. It makes her happy to hear her two closest girlfriends talk to their heart’s content. It seems like they also get along well with each other, despite both of them fighting for time to talk.

When they both take a break to eat, Azumi feels like she finally has a chance to stand up and get more food. Not wanting to be rude by disrupting one of their stories, she eventually takes the opportunity to get that piece of roasted pork she’s been eyeing. She reaches for it with her chopsticks and is met with another pair of chopsticks. She nervously chuckles and politely pulls back, ready to apologize until she looks up to see the owner of the other set of utensils. She locks eyes with Tsukishima and they both frown at each other.

For a few seconds, they have a silent battle as their eyes narrow, both concluding that the piece has tremendously increased in value. Then, the real battle begins. Azumi quickly switches the grip on her chopsticks into a fist as she clenches both chopsticks like a knife and stabs the piece of pork. She looks up at Tsukishima with a grin as she picks the piece up, rejoicing in victory in their little battle. He smirks as he expertly pulls the piece away with his chopsticks while the piece was on route to her plate. As if in slow motion, she watches the piece slowly slide down her chopsticks in utter disbelief and sadness. He then immediately tosses it in his mouth and stares down at her as he begins chewing.

Azumi stares at him dumbfounded. She thought she was fast for stabbing, but he was even faster to recover and take the piece from her. She pouts and slowly grabs her second choice. She sits back down with a bigger frown. She glares at Tsukishima and his smug face makes her blood boil. She sticks out her tongue at him and blows raspberries at him. He smirks triumphantly, his ultimate reward being Azumi’s pouting face. He continues to chew dramatically with a pompous smile plastered on his face.

\--

Azumi stuffs another pillow under Sato’s foot to help it stay elevated overnight. She gets up to refill Sato’s glass of water by the bed stand and then sits on Yachi’s bed cross-legged. Yachi left to shower, allowing the two childhood friends to have some alone time since reuniting. Sato had just showered and was now brushing her hair in bed. For once, the silence gave Azumi an opportunity to speak.

“Hey Yui… Can I ask you something?” She suddenly feels anxious, urging her to bite her nails for relief.

“Yeah, what’s up?” Sato frowns as she pulls aggressively at a larger knot in her hair, visibly irritated by it.

“How did you end up here?” Azumi’s voice comes out in almost a whisper. “Working for Karasuno I mean.”

Sato hums as she contemplates how she should answer. “I reconnected with Tobio during a low time in my life. I wanted to learn how to take care of myself. Survive. Be strong.”

She looks up at Azumi, her eyes searching for a reaction. Sato’s eyes were unusually downcast and vulnerable. She wasn’t radiating her usual level of energy.

She turns back to focus on another knot in her hair. “Tobio was already involved with Karasuno at the time. He asked Daichi and Suga to take me in and they agreed,” she says rather simply, as if it was a natural thing that happened to anybody.

“What happened to you?” Azumi hesitantly asks, a part of her afraid to know the answer. She feels guilty for not being there for her friend. Once she left for university, she tried to reconnect with Sato knowing she was also in Tokyo. However, something always came up. Azumi eventually stopped trying to contact her.

“Nothing special,” she shrugs.

Azumi narrows her eyes as she watches Sato carefully. Sato seemed like she was ready to revert back to her energetic, carefree self. Azumi knows that if she stops pressing the matter, she’ll never find out. Sato was never one who liked talking about serious matters.

“You said you were at a low point in your life. What does that mean? What happened that led you there?” Azumi was finding it hard to hold back her questions. She always felt comfortable around Sato because Sato always embraced her honest thoughts. She never made her feel wrong for saying what she felt.

“Family stuff,” Sato says dismissively. She really doesn’t want to talk about this right now. It was a depressing subject she honestly never wants to discuss, even if it was Azumi asking.

“Hey, y’know you can talk to me about that stuff, right? I’ve had my fair share of family stuff. You helped me through it. You were there for me. I’m here for you,” Azumi gently nudges.

Sato sighs and shakes her head. “It’s not the same as you, Mizuki.” She continues to brush her hair as if brushing would calm her mood. Her eyes stay fixed on her lap, determined not to look at Azumi.

Azumi notes how Sato dropped her nickname. She rarely does that. “I know it’s been a long time since we last saw each other, but I’m still your best friend, Yui. I’m your person,” she states assertively.

Sato suddenly slams her hairbrush on the bedside table making Azumi jolt in her seat. “Don’t fucking talk like you can help, Mizuki. You weren’t there,” she pauses, her teeth aggressively grinding in her mouth. “I don’t need them, and I don’t need your help with it either. I handled it on my own. I’m fine and I’ve been fine on my own without you. So, stop sticking your nose into my life as if that’ll do something for me. It’s none of your business.” Sato glares daggers at Azumi and grits her teeth. The anger radiating from her body makes the bedroom uncomfortably warm.

Azumi felt like Sato just stabbed her in the heart with her words and her stare. She knows she wasn’t a great friend to her after Sato moved away. She knows she could’ve tried harder to reach out to her. Azumi moved on with her own life without her best friend. She realized it was selfish of her to assume the role she once had by Sato’s side. “I’m sorry,” Azumi manages. Her voice quavering more than she’d like but she wasn’t in enough control to contain her emotions.

The women sit in silence as Sato continues to breathe heavily, head turned away from Azumi. Her fuming eventually calms down and her face relaxes. “I’m sorry for lashing out,” she mutters. “That was uncalled for.”

Azumi didn’t realize she was biting her cheek so hard until she released it. Her mouth feeling sore from the bite. “No, you’re right,” she starts. “I shouldn’t have pushed. I haven’t exactly been the greatest friend for you.”

Sato turns to look out the window, her body begins to relax, and it looks like the fatigue from her mission is finally hitting her. “It’s both our faults,” her voice almost apologetic and sad. She turns to look at Azumi and gives her a weak smile.

For the first time in her life, Azumi can’t read her best friend’s face. She seemed sad and genuinely sorry, but she couldn’t help but think that her face still reflected a hint of anger, maybe even resentment. “I’ll let you rest now,” Azumi says gently as she uncrosses her legs and stands up. She walks to the door and glances back at the woman in bed, “Good night,” she says quietly.

“Good night,” Sato mumbles quietly. She quickly turns to continue gazing out the window.

Azumi shuts the door behind her and leans against the wall, releasing a breath she didn’t know she was holding. Sato has never lashed out at her like that before. She’s gotten mad before but never like the way she just blew up. It made Azumi sad. Something obviously happened to her best friend and she didn’t know how to help her. It made her stomach twist realizing that maybe, she really was too late to help her. Azumi couldn’t help but feel like it was all her fault.

\--

Azumi lay in bed painfully awake. She had been tossing and turning for what felt like hours and she wasn’t able to get an itch of sleep. She knew her conversation with Sato was affecting her more than she’d like to admit so she decided it wouldn’t do her any good to stay in bed.

As quietly as she could to avoid waking up Kiyoko, she slipped out of bed and tip-toed across the room to the door. She cringed when she stepped on a creaky floorboard and flashed a glance at Kiyoko who was thankfully still sound asleep.

She makes it to the kitchen without making a sound and decides to make a cup of tea for herself. She quietly rummages through the cupboards for some time until she’s able to find it, having not familiarized herself in her new home yet. However, when she takes a whiff of the warm aroma, she realizes it was worth the trouble.

Azumi glances at the night sky and decides to enjoy her tea outside instead. According to the oven clock, it was close to three in the morning, but she didn’t really care. She remembers Hinata mentioning the backyard being slightly below the main floor level resulting in a small lounging area under the porch connected to the kitchen. He mentioned it being an area where people could rest from the glaring sun between their training sessions.

Azumi quietly slides the screen door open and slides on a random pair of slippers. She makes her way down the set of stairs, careful to keep her steps quiet. When she reaches the bottom and turns to enter the area under the porch, she’s surprised to see someone already sitting on one of the benches. Her jolt of surprise causes her to spill her tea a little and it drips painfully on her foot. She grimaces but otherwise stays quiet.

The person turns to look at her and blows a puff of smoke. Before the smoke completely obstructs her view of their face, she realizes Tsukishima is the one smoking. He doesn’t seem surprised by her presence, probably having heard her walk down the porch steps. He leans back into the bench and pretends as if he never saw her.

Azumi’s nose scrunches at the smell of smoke, disappointed that her vision for a night of fresh air is now ruined. She’s already made it all the way down here though, so she decides to take a seat anyways hoping to stay far enough away from Tsukishima. She picks a chair to his left, hoping the gentle wind will continue blowing the smoke away from her.

Because she didn’t intend on sitting outside when she left her room, she realizes she isn’t wearing enough layers. Feeling too lazy to go back up, she just cradles her warm cup of tea closer to her as she lifts her feet onto the seat and curls up in the chair. She is forced to look at Tsukishima since her chair is facing directly towards him. He is however, facing perpendicular from her and is simply staring up into the night sky. In contrast to his usual scowl, he seemed rather tranquil and relaxed. Azumi doesn’t think she’s seen him like this before.

“The smoke smells like shit,” she blurts out, disrupting the calm, quiet night. She rests her chin in her palm as she turns to look at the night sky.

Tsukishima flinches at her sudden comment and his eyes flick to look at her curled-up figure for a moment. She doesn’t notice him remove his earbud. “Well too bad. I was here first,” he hisses.

Azumi turns to frown at him even though she knows he can’t see it. She shifts in her seat to face away from him so that her legs swing over the armrests and her back leans against the other armrest.

After staring at the night sky for a few moments, she finds her eyes drifting back to the blonde male. He’s still wearing the same style of black, rectangular glasses like he did in high school and his blond hair still short and ruffled. Instead of his usual headphones, he has one earbud plugged in, the other loosely hanging on his chest. She notices how his Adam’s apple is more prominent and his shoulders broader than she remembers. _He’s no longer the tall and lanky boy from high school,_ she thinks to herself.

Azumi notices him wearing a familiar black track jacket and a part of her is jealous for forgetting to wear more layers yet again. She watches his wide shoulders fractionally shudder when they lift and lower with each of his breaths. She realizes he isn’t as relaxed as she thought when she notices his large hand grasping his thigh tightly.

“Why are you still up anyways?” she asks innocently.

He pulls out his left earbud with a huff and continues staring at the night sky. “Can’t sleep,” he simply states.

Azumi’s eyes drift to the hand on his leg again and recalls Sugawara mentioning Tsukishima took a knife to the leg from his mission. She starts to wonder if it’s causing him a lot of pain, resulting in his inability so sleep.

She continues to watch him carefully as she takes a sip from her tea. “I could tell Suga you’re a big baby and that you need more pain meds,” she teases. However, her voice sounds more concerned than she was hoping to let on. She doesn’t want him to know she’s worried.

He clicks his tongue and throws a dirty look at her. Azumi was hoping for a bigger reaction, like an insult or something but she’s still satisfied with what she got. There’s another moment of silence between them.

“I heard you’ve been a big crying baby since they found you,” Tsukishima suddenly sneers.

Azumi is taken back by the comment and unfortunately for her, a clever retort doesn’t come to mind. She doesn’t want to try denying it since it was partially true. She also doesn’t want to admit that it _was_ partially true, so she chooses not to say anything.

She takes another sip from her tea and realizes she’s almost finished with the drink. She still cradles the cup even though it stopped radiating its’ warm, comforting heat a long time ago. She scrunches her nose once the smell of smoke reaches her again, the wind having now stopped. The smoke from Tsukishima’s cigarette simply hangs in the air in the space between them.

“How did you end up with Karasuno?” She finally spits out the question that’s been itching her throat. She stares at him intently hoping to see any kind of reaction. He places the cigarette back in his mouth and releases another cloud of smoke. Azumi can’t help but cough this time.

“It’s none of your business.” His tone so direct and harsh that she knows he won’t budge if she pursues the topic. She admits defeat for now but realizes she has another question in mind.

“Is Akiteru-san here too?”

Tsukishima’s eyes fractionally twitch. He forgot she met his brother back then. He forgot they actually got along well too. He figures his brother would want him to tell her about him. “He’s abroad with Karasuno’s godfather,” he states. “That’s our boss by the way. Pea brain like you probably didn’t know that,” he gives her his usual condescending smirk.

Azumi’s jaw drops down and she collects herself to shout back an insult. “You little piece of-“

“He won’t be back for another few months probably,” he cuts her off in a dispassionate tone.

Azumi forgets her heated moment and simply nods. She shifts in her seat so that she’s sitting on the chair in its’ correct orientation. She still curls her feet onto the seat to keep herself warm.

She watches how Tsukishima’s long fingers hold the tiny cigarette and how he flicks it gently removing the excess ash onto an ashtray beside him. He places it back in his mouth and inhales it lightly before blowing another cloud of smoke. Despite the smoke partially obstructing her view of him, she’s still able to see him shift in his seat. He grimaces and his hand clutches his leg again.

_I’m definitely telling Suga tomorrow,_ she sleepily notes to herself. She places her cup down on the ground and wraps her arms around her knees. She leans back and gets more comfortable in her seat.

She recalls when she first met Tsukishima and how much his guts annoyed her. His presence reeked of cold superiority and he was only able to make condescending comments. Then she remembers how that changed and how comfortable she grew with him over the years.

Tsukishima and Azumi were never talkative people and found their times alone usually filled with a few snarky words and silence. She breathes deeply while lost in thought, forgetting about the smoke and reflexively coughs in response. Despite their unusual friendship, she’s glad she can still sit in comfortable silence with him.

She continues to watch Tsukishima eventually relax and release the hold on his leg. She listens to his steady breathing and her eyes eventually flutter closed. Her breathing slows as she falls asleep.

The next morning, she finds herself on the living room couch with a familiar black and very large track jacket draping over her curled-up body. She pulls the jacket up to her nose and wallows in guilt for being carried inside by an injured person. She wraps the jacket more tightly around her body and inhales the smoky but comforting scent. Although she feels guilty, she feels touched by the gesture.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> rip Tsukki's leg hehe


	8. Nerves

It’s been almost two months since Azumi arrived and during that time, she immersed herself in a comfortable training schedule. She now spends a lot less time at the dining table and instead, receives combat training from Asahi, Nishinoya and Kiyoko. They fixed bad habits she developed in her previous amateur combat classes and introduced her to real time fighting with various weapons.

As Ennoshita first explained to her, she would need to be capable to take on any role required of her. She learned a lot about becoming an undercover spy, such as close-range combat, assuming various personas and applying subtle interrogation techniques. She still got teased by Kageyama and Tsukishima when they watched her practice, but she received enough praise from her mentors to convince herself that she was at least decent.

Throughout her training sessions, she realized she wasn’t picking up shooting as well as she hoped. She could handle a handgun and shoot relatively well when her targets were moving at a short distance, but she definitely wasn’t ready to be a sniper.

Hinata always told her it would take time, as sniping wasn’t his forte either despite being at Karasuno for a few years. He said the only elite snipers in Karasuno were Kageyama and Tsukishima, as their cool-headedness and precision were on a different level. Their skills are well-known everywhere in the yakuza community which meant that they were often specifically requested for missions.

Azumi regularly sparred with Sato, Kiyoko and Hinata and occasionally had the opportunity to spar Tanaka and Yamaguchi to practice fighting larger opponents. Because her left hand still has difficulty wielding a gun or melee weapon, Hinata taught her how to throw knives. She could grip weapons, but it lacked the strength to withstand a blow if she landed a swing. With throwing, her accuracy and strength aren’t where she wants them to be, but it’ll allow her a chance to fight back despite recovering from an injury.

Azumi was sparring with Sato when Sugawara came to summon the both of them for a mission assignment. It was her first time being summoned and she couldn’t help but gloat because it meant Daichi and Sugawara approved of her progress.

Sato was equally excited for her, if not more when she beamed with a bright smile and punched Azumi’s shoulder a little too hard. On their way to Daichi’s office, Azumi also couldn’t help but feel nervous. She was doubtful of whether she was strong and capable enough to not let her team down.

\--

It’s the first time Azumi’s been in Daichi’s office so she tries not to make that fact obvious by keeping her head still and subtly moving her eyes. The room is smaller than she imagined; it has a desk, a few bookshelves and a smaller table in the corner of the room with whiskey.

Sugawara gestures for Azumi and Sato to take a seat in the two chairs placed in front of Daichi’s desk as he makes his way around it to stand behind a hunched over Daichi, elbows resting on the table and hands firmly grasping each other. The women give Daichi a bow and he nods, signaling them to sit.

“We’re waiting for Ennoshita to grab your other team members,” Sugawara says with a smile.

Azumi nods and absentmindedly starts biting her nails. Suddenly a hand appears and swats her hand away from her mouth. She jolts and turns to look at Sato who gives her a disappointed look. “You really need to stop biting your nails,” she hisses in a low voice.

Azumi scowls in response and pulls at her fingers instead. A soft knock is heard to signal Ennoshita’s arrival.

“Enter,” Daichi responds in a low voice. With how he’s sitting and the lack of conversation with Sugawara, Azumi has to assume Daichi’s in a bad mood.

She turns her head to see Ennoshita enter with Tsukishima and Yamaguchi towering behind him. _Great… my first mission is with Tsukki. I’ll never hear the end of it if I mess up,_ Azumi thinks with a frown on her face.

Tsukishima notices her and returns the frown. He doesn’t look particularly happy to be on her team for her first mission either. The three shuffle in and stand in a row behind Azumi and Sato’s seats.

“As you all know, this is Azumi’s first mission,” Daichi starts.

Azumi tenses at the mention and her eyes dart to gauge Sugawara and Sato’s reactions. They remain emotionless.

She crosses her arms and subtly grasps the tattoo on her left rib, just under her breast. She hopes it’ll somehow grant her more confidence.

“That’s why this mission is quite simple. As you all know, there is a new stimulant that is beginning to circulate. Similar to Adderall, it is very addictive, and it increases alertness, attention and energy. However, it is superior to Adderall because its effects last longer and a smaller dosage can induce a stronger effect. It’ll be dangerous and troublesome for us if we encounter a larger yakuza group using it. Since it is only slowly making an appearance, the mission is to simply gather information on said drug.”

Daichi leans back in his chair and crosses his arms, nodding at Sugawara to begin. Sugawara moves forward and starts displaying documents on the table.

“We have intel that people who may be involved with the suppliers will be at this casino this weekend,” Sugawara gestures to a document on the table. “Your goal is to determine who the suppliers are and who could be involved in funding and distributing the drug. We have speculations that Johzenji may be involved but no means to prove it. It’ll be troublesome if they make a deal with a group like Shiratorizowa since they’ve been more aggressive with expanding their territory in Miyagi lately.”

Sugawara assigns everyone their roles; Azumi and Sato are the lead undercover spies, Ennoshita is the lead intelligence agent, assisted by Tsukishima leading up to the mission date but the blonde will be on-site and undercover the day of. Yamaguchi will be on stand-by near their car if an emergent escape is required.

As Karasuno’s main undercover spies are out on their own missions, Sato and Tsukishima will be filling in from their usual sniper roles.

Sugawara gets into more details regarding the location and who they expect to see. He looks and gives Azumi a small reassuring smile when he mentions that he doesn’t expect any combat to occur. Their job is to simply engage in conversation with various suspects involved further down the ranks to get any information they can.

Azumi finds the assumption comforting but still feels nervous about being on-site for the first time.

\--

Azumi stares at herself in the mirror as she turns to see how her sleek black gown fits on her body. The stretchy material makes it comfortable despite it tightly hugging her curves. The skirt was originally long but she asked Kiyoko to adjust it into a midi skirt to make it possible for her to avoid tripping over her feet. The adjusted length still makes it possible to conceal the weapons she has strapped to her thigh. It also shows off her slim shoulders because of its’ off-shoulder style and the loose sleeves conceal the knives strapped to her forearm.

_I actually look pretty good…_ she softly smiles at her reflection. She doesn’t remember the last time she dressed up for something.

She reaches up a hand and threads through her long black hair with her fingers. Her face twists into a puzzled look. _I’ll have to ask Yui to deal with my hair and make-up for me though._ She brushes her hair quickly before making her way to Sato’s room.

She reaches for the door handle and is startled when it suddenly pulls away from her. She looks up and is surprised to see Kageyama. She didn’t know he had returned from his mission.

He mirrors her surprised look and doesn’t try to hide his staring when he looks down at her in her dress. His gaping makes Azumi blush and she’s lost for words when she sees his face turn a slight pink.

He abruptly clears his throat, surprising himself with how loud he is. His eyes widen and he takes a step to the side to let her pass, but instead he clumsily collides with the door frame. He becomes even more flustered and stiffens. He stands up straight and takes a larger step into the hallway, giving Azumi a slight nod as if none of that had just happened.

His awkwardness makes her forget her initial shyness. She punches his arm and laughs. “It’s like you’ve never seen a girl in a dress or something,” she teases.

He frowns at her and crosses his arms, “I’ve seen girls in dresses before,” he retorts.

His eyes travel from her face to look at her shoulders. He can’t help but notice how bare they look exposed like that and how slim and delicate they are to match her petite body. _Is she going to be cold exposed like that?_ He quickly thinks. His eyes travel to her neck and he can’t help but notice how her smooth collarbones dip down and cast a small shadow just under her neck. He gulps. _I shouldn’t be staring_ , he scolds himself. _Have some decency, Tobio!_

Azumi giggles, “Okay, but girls in movies don’t count. Have you seen _real_ girls in dresses though?” She tilts her head questioningly and places her hands on her hips. Now Kageyama can’t help but notice her small waist and the way her hips flare out from it.

He clears his throat and huffs. “Yes, I have seen real girls in dresses before, Azumi,” he snaps. He then pauses to look at her face and hair. Even though they look exactly like how she has it on a normal day, she still looks pretty to him. “You just look nicer,” he blurts.

This time, Azumi gapes at him and then immediately turns red. She punches him again before looking away. When he realizes what he just said, his face flushes. His face becomes hotter when he recalls how her shoulders flexed when she swung at him. He feels more embarrassed for noticing and develops a strong urge to flee the scene.

“Whatever, you idiot,” she manages to mumble, refusing to look at him again.

Kageyama quickly wishes her good luck on her mission and hurries away to his own room. He slams the door a little too hard and leans back against the door. He lets out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding. He feels extremely embarrassed that he blurted something so silly out. It makes him more flustered realizing that he said that out loud, especially with the door to Sato’s room open. He feels uneasy thinking about how she could’ve heard what he said.

He hates how flustered he gets with Azumi. He doesn’t like her anymore like when they grew up together, so why does he keep losing his cool in front of her? He shakes his head aggressively, hoping his ridiculous thoughts will be shaken away.

\--

Azumi remains standing in the hallway staring at the vacant spot Kageyama was occupying. She continues to replay what just happened.

She feels hot remembering the way he said, “ _You just look nicer than they do_.”

She feels herself blush all over again. _Why is he acting like such an idiot?_ She sighs and remembers why she wanted to go to Sato’s room in the first place. A part of her hopes Sato didn’t hear so that they didn’t have to talk about it but another part of her hoped she did so that they could talk about it. She’s not sure which she prefers more.

Azumi enters Sato and Yachi’s shared room and finds Sato applying her makeup in front of the vanity. Sato and Yachi’s room is significantly larger than Azumi’s room with Kiyoko. It also has a lot more furniture and personality compared to her plain room. It just lacks a connecting bathroom.

Because of the size of the room, Sato doesn’t react to Azumi’s quiet entrance. Azumi stares at Sato in awe. Her slim red gown hugs her body in a very flattering way and her slim but muscular leg carefully slips out from the large slit in her dress. The collar of her dress scoops low into a sweetheart shape showing off her cleavage. Her dress doesn’t have any sleeves, so it shows off her toned arms and shoulders, her porcelain skin contrasting the red. Her hair is straightened and shiny, resting lightly on her shoulders.

Azumi can’t help but feel a little jealous at how beautiful her best friend looks. She looks like one of those hot romantic interests in a James Bond movie. Her self-confidence from earlier quickly fades as she stares at Sato’s beautiful outfit.

As Azumi approaches her and sits on a bed, Sato quickly glances at Azumi’s reflection and smiles. “You look pretty hot in that dress, Zuzu,” she teases. It comes out as a joke, but Sato is genuine when she said it.

Sato was never one to hold back her prying, so Azumi concludes that she didn’t hear her awkward encounter with Kageyama. She decides not to bring it up. “I look like a little girl trying to play dress up with mommy’s clothes compared to you,” she scoffs, deflecting the compliment. “Red looks really good on you, Yui. And your boobs are practically falling out.”

Sato smirks and then gives Azumi a wink. “That was exactly what I was going for, honey.” Azumi knows they’re just friends but the wink makes her warm regardless. _Yui really knows how to work her womanly charms..._

Azumi patiently waits on the bed as Sato finishes up her makeup. She starts to unconsciously chew on her bottom lip, feeling the nerves of tonight’s upcoming mission. She knows she’s capable and has practiced enough the last few days, but it doesn’t change the fact that she could still mess up. She doesn’t want to disappoint her team.

“Although I’m glad you’re cutting back on biting your nails, you’re going to chew that lip raw if you don’t stop. And you’re going to get mad wrinkles if you keep frowning all the time,” Sato’s scolding voice snaps Azumi out of her thoughts. She stands up and gestures for her to sit in front of the vanity.

Azumi gives her a sheepish smile and hesitantly sits down. She watches Sato from the mirror’s reflection as she starts to curl her hair.

“I know how much of a worry-wart you are, Zuzu. But you really don’t have to worry,” Sato says soothingly. She looks up to give Azumi a soft smile. “There’s a reason why I’m assigned with you for your first mission y’know.”

Azumi takes a moment to process her words. “You asked Suga to join me?” She asks in disbelief.

Sato hums. “That and I also gave him my recommendation when I knew you were ready.” She pauses as she separates another section of hair to curl. “You were learning fast, just like you usually do,” she says almost jealously.

Azumi feels grateful finding out that Sato has always been looking out for her. She stares at Sato’s eyes intently hoping to find some other hidden message. “You’re ready. You’re strong, Zuzu.” Azumi’s breath hitches at the statement. Sato looks up and stares at Azumi’s eyes, hoping for her to acknowledge the statement and agree. “Daichi and Suga trust you and they also believe you’re ready. And you’ll have me looking out for you too.”

Azumi looks down at her sweaty hands and begins spinning the ring on her finger. “I could mess up,” she starts quietly. “Messing up could get me killed. Or worse, you. Or Tsukishima or Yamaguchi,” her nervousness gushes out at a rapid rate. “It’ll all be my fault and… and I don’t know what I would do if one of you got hurt because of me,” she stammers.

Sato finishes curling the last section of her hair and taps her shoulder. Azumi hesitantly brought her eyes up to meet her glittering violet eyes. She’s slightly taken back by how serious her features are. Sato’s eyes burn into Azumi’s with more intensity than Azumi’s ever seen come from her. It makes her want to curl up within herself.

“I trust you with my life,” she declares. “All of us do.” She squeezes Azumi’s shoulder tightly and looks at her determinedly.

Azumi’s not sure why she’s always struggled with her low self-esteem. She knows she’s smart. She knows she can pick up things easily, whether it be books or sports if she puts her mind to it. She understands her body and brain well enough that they would work the way she wants them to.

It's ironic though. _She could excel if she put her mind to it._ The problem is that she never learned how to understand her mind. She never understood how it always finds a way to tear her spirits down. How it never fails to remind her that she is weak.

However, Azumi works hard even if she’s weak. She didn’t spend all those hours training until she wanted to puke for nothing. She always said, “one more time” when she was knocked down. Even if every fiber in her body was shaking with exhaustion, she could always get back on her feet.

Azumi finally stops spinning her ring, feeling a surge of confidence spread through her body at her best friend’s words. She knows Sato didn’t say it to simply make her feel better. Sato believes in her words. Her genuine belief manages to snap Azumi out of it, helping her start to believe in herself. She grasps her tattoo, as if her inner strength was rooted in that one spot in her body.

All the Karasuno members know that she’s their weakest link, but that doesn’t change the fact that they trust her. They’re a team. A team is stronger together than apart.

Azumi nods and returns the intense stare.

“I won’t let you down.”

\--

Despite her moment of confidence earlier, Azumi still finds herself spinning the ring on her finger. She stops to reach up to adjust the earpiece she was given when she hears Ennoshita’s voice buzz in her ear. She glances at Sato next to her in the backseat who does the same thing.

Ennoshita gives a quick run-down of the expected series of events for tonight. He lists the names of the Johzenji members Azumi and Sato are supposed to subtly interrogate. Azumi is expected to gain as much information from a man named Bobata Kazuma. He isn’t very high up in the ranks but there’s a chance he may know something.

The most challenging part was left for Sato, who’s assigned to interrogate Terushima Yuji. According to their intel, Terushima holds a much higher rank than Azumi’s target and therefore, smarter. His only weakness is flirty beautiful women, which meant Sato was perfect for the job.

In fact, apparently all Johzenji men had a weak spot for beautiful women seeing as they were known for drinking and partying to their heart’s content. It makes sense that the lead undercover spies have to be women.

Azumi glances at Tsukishima sitting in shotgun through the rear-view mirror. As usual, she can’t read his face. He almost looks bored and a little annoyed. She was silently hoping for him to have some sort of game face where he suddenly looks more intimidating and powerful. Isn’t he supposed to be a well-known sniper in the yakuza? Unfortunately, the famous sniper still has the same old boring face when he’s at work.

She’ll admit that her breath hitched when she saw him in his suit. He looked almost charming, especially because the slim suit fitted him so well. _It definitely wasn’t because I think he’s good looking,_ Azumi quickly reminds herself. _I mean he’s definitely not bad looking…_ She shakes her head. _It’s simply because all men look good in suits_. She aggressively nods as if to solidify the statement.

She glances at Yamaguchi who’s currently driving. _Even Yamaguchi looks nice_ … she forces a smile. _What am I thinking? Yamaguchi is cute gentle giant. It’s not the same._ She looks back at Tsukishima in the mirror and sighs. _Alright, he does look kind of cool._

“…Understood?”

Azumi jolts at the question. She was barely paying attention.

“Yes!” she hesitantly repeats with everyone else. She looks at each of them nervously and searches her brain’s archives to review the plan for tonight.

Sato will be on her own circulating the casino until she finds Terushima. Azumi will enter with Tsukishima as her escort, but they will later separate so that she can find her own target. Tsukishima will be on stand-by nearby, keeping an eye out for Azumi in case she needs help. Yamaguchi will remain in the car, parked nearby in case they need to leave quickly.

Azumi is surprised when she feels a hot hand grasp her cold ones. She turns to look at Sato’s eyes, poorly lit by passing streetlights. “You’ll be okay,” she says fondly. “Remember, if you need help, signal Tsukishima or tell us through the earpiece. We’ll all be looking out for each other.” She squeezes Azumi’s hand tightly.

Azumi nods and faces forward. She didn’t realize Yamaguchi and Tsukishima were immersed in conversation.

“…and remember you’re supposed to be Azumi’s escort tonight so be nice, Tsukki,” Yamaguchi almost teases.

“Tch.”

Azumi watches Tsukishima’s face turn into a frown. Even though Tsukishima is usually foul to everyone, it seems numbed down when its directed at Yamaguchi. She’s never heard him say anything half as bad as he says to her or Kageyama. He’s so rude compared to Yamaguchi, a cute marshmallow who is very inappropriately working for the yakuza. It still amazes Azumi how they’re such good friends.

“We’re here,” Yamaguchi states. The car slows down to a stop on a dark secluded street. “I can’t drop you off too close or it’ll look like the three of you came together,” he says apologetically.

Up ahead, Azumi could spot a large and well-lit building. The brightness and noise dramatically contrasting the rest of the gloomy and dark street. She could make out laughing women grasping men’s arms inside in addition to the bright flashing lights.

Azumi gulps, frantically searching for her confidence to help her get through the night. _I can do this, I can do this, I can do this,_ she repeats like a mantra.

She’s startled when both Tsukishima and Sato open their respective car doors. She can partially see Sato flicking her hair over her shoulder as she takes off on her own to the venue. Yamaguchi turns around to look at her, “You’ll be fine Azumi. Good luck out there.” He grins and gives her a thumbs up.

Azumi nods and releases the hold she has on her ring. Her door abruptly opens, and a large slender hand reaches out to her. She looks up at the familiar blonde man and takes a deep breath. _I can do this_.

She takes his hand and steps out of the vehicle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's going to get spicy!


	9. A Little Game

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Been on a bit of a stump with this story but good thing I wrote so many chapters in advance haha. I'll still be updating somewhat regularly until I catch up to my latest chapter... Please leave any feedback you may have! It'll really help with the motivation and writing juices

Chapter Nine – A Little Game

Tsukishima plasters on his fake smile as he guides a nervous Azumi into the casino. It intrigues him that her hand is so thin and small in comparison to his, but it can somehow manage to produce a ridiculous amount of sweat. This makes him internally cringe and he desperately feels the urge to wipe his hand. Unfortunately for him, now is not an appropriate time to do so.

He lets go and gestures for her to grab his forearm instead. His large strides cause him to be slightly in front of her and it encourages her to drag her feet a bit faster.

They encounter an overwhelming amount of people in the lobby which forces Tsukishima to pull Azumi closer to him. She grasps his forearm tighter, and her face pales slightly.

Tsukishima can see Sato up ahead being her natural outgoing self, having engaging conversations with various wealthy people. Although Sato specializes in being a sniper, she seems like she’s in her element when it comes to working as an undercover spy. Something about her always makes him feel on edge, especially the way she switches between her serious, intense self with her flirty, outgoing self. He’s good at switching too, but the unnaturally smooth she does it made him feel wary of her.

Tsukishima puts on his happy and modest face when women begin to flirt with him, despite already having a woman clinging onto his arm. He thanks them kindly and returns their compliments.

He dreads every moment he has to talk to flirty women pressing their breasts against him. This part about being an undercover spy is probably his least favourite part. He just hates talking to people, period.

He wouldn’t say he loves being a sniper, but it was definitely the least detestable. He prefers the independence, the silence and the feeling he gets when he lands his target perfectly. It’s rare that he ever misses, allowing him to feel a sense of pride when he completes a mission flawlessly.

Being an undercover agent on the other hand, was something he isn’t amazing at. He’s able to put on his fake smile and he does enough to get the job done.

However, today is an especially unlucky day. Not only is Tsukishima assigned as an undercover agent, but he has to babysit a useless waste of space. Said waste of space was now currently taking up his personal space with how closely she was clinging to him. He looks down at her and seeing her pale face and forced smile makes it difficult for him to stifle his laughter.

“Oi, you look like a damn deer in headlights. Straighten up, will you? And stop standing so close to me. Your stupidity is going to rub off on me,” he snaps.

He looks down on her with a smirk, expecting a retort, a frown, or a punch. But nothing comes.

_Well this is lame,_ he scoffs. It doesn’t look like she even heard anything.

At this point, he’s already practically dragging her into the casino’s main playing area. She doesn’t even scrunch her nose when the pungent smell of alcohol and smoke fills the air; smells he knows she doesn’t like from the numerous times he purposely blew smoke into her face as a joke.

She still looks pale and continues to wear a grimace on her face. _How the hell is she supposed to gather any intel with a stupid face like that?_

“Tch, let go you dumbass. Look for your target while I go grab us some drinks. Stay here.” He aggressively shrugs her death grip until her fingers peel away from his jacket sleeve.

She blankly nods.

_The night has only started and it’s already a disaster._ He rolls his eyes and heads towards the bar.

When he gets there, he realizes he doesn’t know what she drinks. He glances down the bar eyeing the drinks other women were loosely grasping as they flirted with their male counterparts.

_Probably something fruity and light,_ he guesses. _Can’t have her getting drunk on the job._

He orders a piña colada for Azumi and whiskey for himself. He shrugs off more flirty women, apologizing that he has to return back to his blockhead of a woman.

Tsukishima shoves Azumi’s drink into her chest and she grabs it in surprise, apparently needing both hands to stabilize the glass. At this rate, she might just spill her drink all over herself. Maybe with some nervous puking to top it off.

“Are you always going to clam up like this?” he snaps. He clicks his tongue, “You’re absolutely useless.” He carefully watches her face searching for a reaction. She slowly raises the glass to her lips and mindlessly sips.

“I think I see him,” she mumbles. “At the blackjack table near the bathroom.”

Tsukishima is startled by her voice. It was the first time she’s spoken since he offered his hand. She looked all bold and confident when she got out of the car and then all of a sudden, it just went away.

His eyes trace the direction of her gaze and he spots Bobata. His brown hair was slicked back with too much gel and he was carelessly laughing with an arm around a woman whose nose was too big.

“I can walk with you until we’re closer but that’s all I can do y’know that right?”

“Mhm.”

Tsukishima turns to look at Azumi and watches her face carefully. She takes another sip out of her drink, her gaze still fixed on her target for the night. He takes a sip of his whiskey, feeling the distinct burn in his throat. He’s not sure if it’s the warmness building up in his stomach from the alcohol or how pathetic Azumi looks that it makes him feel almost bad. Before he can figure out which one it is, the words slip out of him.  
  
“You’re not going to fuck up.”

Azumi is startled by how tender his voice sounds. “What?” She looks up at him questioningly. The way her eyes sparkle makes him queasy.

Tsukishima sighs and looks away from her so he can stop staring at those soft hazel eyes. He really doesn’t want to repeat the marginally nice thing he slipped out. _For the sake of the mission, I’ll take this moment of humiliation for the team_ , he grumbles.

“You’re not going to fuck up,” he repeats with a sigh. “Just remember what you were taught, and you’ll be fine.” He flashes a glance at her and this time, his eyes settle on her small frame. She was no longer looking at him.

He sees her visibly loosen and notices that a little bit of colour returns to her face.

“Maybe I just needed a drink,” she comments.

She swirls her drink and looks at it with a puzzled face. “Why did you get me such a girly drink?” She flashes him a grin and it comforts him that she’s returned to her usual self so quickly.

“I don’t need to be babysitting a drunk idiot too,” he scoffs.

Azumi glares at him. “I’m not that light weight.”

“Well, as much as I want to see you shit faced and embarrassing yourself with your very horrifying flirting, that will not get the mission done.” He can’t suppress his smile imagining how stupid she’d look.

She scowls at him, really hating how smug he looks.

They fall into a comfortable silence and his smile eventually fades. He offers his arm to her again.

“Let’s go,” he declares.

She takes his arm, this time grasping it with confident, dry hands. Tsukishima notices that her hand is no longer trembling as she walks beside him instead of a step behind.

They stop at a comfortable distance away where it would be easy for Tsukishima to watch their target but not close enough that he’d easily see someone staring at him. Azumi takes another sip of her drink and looks up at Tsukishima with a small smile. She simply nods and then leaves to play her part.

Tsukishima drinks the rest of his drink and lights a cigarette, still maintaining his gaze on Azumi. She weaves through the crowd and sweetly smiles at cat calls she receives. He frowns at how easily she embraces the demeaning comments and blows a puff of smoke.

She reaches Bobata’s table and stands across from him. From this angle, Tsukishima can’t make out what kind of atrocious flirtatious face she comes up with, but he can tell it’s working by the way it piques Bobata’s interest.

He quietly announces to their team through the earpiece that Azumi is now engaging her target. Ennoshita gives a few words of encouragement and says that he’ll try to help as much as he can. From where the table is, he doesn’t have a good view of Azumi. He tells Tsukishima to help where he can as Ennoshita will focus on assisting Sato who is tackling a trickier target.

Tsukishima watches Azumi make her way to stand behind Bobata. She seductively traces a hand along his arm up his shoulder with her fingertips. He frowns at how extremely awkward it looks. _How do men actually fall for that?_ He tries to shake off the uncomfortable feeling.

His eyes wander and he finds Sato laughing and clinging onto Terushima. In contrast to Azumi, she flirts expertly pulling on the right strings to show her interest but also avoiding coming on too strong. She playfully touches Terushima’s blonde hair and leans in slightly when she laughs, making him itch for more contact.

His eyes flick back to Azumi and she’s now comfortably sitting close to Bobata with a bright smile on her face. He hears her giggle through the earpiece and sees Bobata chuckle while he glances down at his thigh. One of Bobata’s eyebrows raises questionably but he grins, nonetheless. The small hand Tsukishima was once holding onto just moments ago is now probably stroking that dirty man’s leg.

Tsukishima snorts and places his cigarette back into his mouth before blowing another puff of smoke. _That idiot’s flirting is so bad, it’s making me feel sick_. He glances at Sato again. _Sato’s flirting doesn’t make me uncomfortable because she’s actually good at it,_ he tells himself.

Sato’s femininity shines especially when she’s working, but that’s only because she already has feminine allure to start with. Despite him admitting that she’s attractive in many ways, he never found himself falling for her. He actually finds her slightly intimidating when he observes the way she works.

Even though she joined Karasuno after him, she’s considered more of an expert in the field because of how well-rounded she is. She might even surpass Kiyoko, Karasuno’s goddess. Sato can easily take down any number of men and she assumes any persona she wants. The only thing Kiyoko is unquestionably superior in, is her expertise in close range weapons.

However, Tsukishima isn’t intimidated by Sato because of how she fights. He finds that her most dangerous weapon is her personality. Tsukishima considers himself an observant person but even he finds it difficult to read her. After all these years, he still can’t get a grasp on who she really is.

Before Azumi arrived, it was hard for him to tell if she truly cared for her closest friends at the time. She spent a lot of time with Kageyama and Yachi but it was hard to tell if their friendships were sincere. It wasn’t until Azumi arrived that he was finally able to confirm Sato’s feelings about something; she genuinely cares for Azumi.

Despite her ambiguous personality, he’ll admit it’s definitely nice to have her on the same team as him. It’d be troublesome fighting against her.

Tsukishima snaps out of his thoughts and turns his gaze back to Azumi’s table to do his part in his mission. He realizes that her and Bobata are no longer at the blackjack table.

He clicks his tongue, “Fuck.”

\--

Azumi blinks several times before she’s able to completely open her eyes. Even though she’s sure her eyes are open, everything she sees is blurred and she can’t quite make out where she is. She feels a gag tied around her mouth, absorbing what little saliva she has left in her mouth.

She tries to reach up to touch her face but realizes her wrists are bound to the armrests of her chair. Based on the texture, she assumes she’s being bound by rope and it’s tied so tightly, she feels her skin chafing from her attempt to move. Begrudgingly, she notes that there’s no wiggle room at all for her to attempt slipping her hands out.

She blinks slowly while looking at her hands until her vision clears. She still feels fuzzy, but her senses were slowly returning.

She feels extremely groggy like she just woke up from a deep sleep. _How long was I out for?_

Her mind whirls as she tries to process where she’s being captive. The first thing she sees is a gambling table in front of her with multiple chairs surrounding it. It doesn’t look like anyone else is in the room with her. She’s sitting the furthest away from the door and the room is dimly lit by overhead lights. She’s not sure if she’s imagining it, but she thinks she could hear the murmur of distant chatter from the main playing area. _It looks like I’m in one of those private rooms at the casino_.

Her brain strains itself trying to recall what happened to her. She remembers Bobata inviting her to join him for a private game. She remembers looking at Tsukishima for help, but he was in such a daze, he didn’t notice her desperate stares. Because of how groggy she’s feeling, she’s not sure if she’s sitting in the same room she was escorted to. _Probably not…_

She vaguely remembers other men sitting around the table, a few with women clinging to their arms. She remembers smiling sweetly at them and turning back to look at Bobata. She remembers him encouraging her to take a sip of the martini he got for her. She remembers refusing and insisting to finish her own drink. She remembers drinking out of her own glass, but nothing comes to mind after that sip. _Ugh, I thought I was careful enough to drink from my own glass. He must’ve spiked it when I wasn’t looking._

She suddenly hears a buzzing near her ear and her face lights up when she realizes what it is. Her earpiece was still loosely caught somewhere in her curls. Her captors must’ve missed it since it probably fell out before they checked her body.

She couldn’t make out who was speaking in it but at least she could still let them know she’s still alive. Her excitement makes her forget that she has a gag around her mouth and everything that she tries to say comes out garbled. It should be enough for them to know she needs help, right?

The door suddenly swings open and she glares at the man who enters the room. It wasn’t a surprise that it was Bobata who smirks, probably enjoying how helpless she looks right now. Azumi’s knuckles turn white from how hard she’s gripping the armrests.

“Well, well, well… Looks like our little kitten has woken up from her nap.”

His voice is deeper compared to when he responded to her flirting earlier that night. It isn’t until he walks around the table to approach her that she realizes there’s another man behind him. He gives her a maniacal grin and then releases a cruel mocking laugh. The pitch is sharp and cuts through the room in a way that makes Azumi’s ears ring.

“I knew Bobato wouldn’t have attracted such a pretty girl,” he sneers. He walks past a frowning Bobata and stops right in front of Azumi. Even if she wasn’t sitting, he would still tower over her. The combination of his height and the dim lighting in the room casts a shadow on his face. It doesn’t stop her from noticing his distinct large eyes. The way they brightened in response to her helpless state is hard to miss.

Azumi’s eyes widen when she identifies the man towering over her. The owner of the maniacal laugh and haunting nickname. He leans back onto the gambling table as he casually twirls some knives between his fingers.

Azumi’s eyes flick to her forearm and she frowns. The man is twirling the knives that were hidden there.

“You seem surprised to see me!”

He pushes off from the table and leans in to clutch Azumi’s face to lift it upwards. He grins, flashing his menacing fangs. He abruptly lets go to remove her gag.

Azumi’s mouth feels immediately sore without the constant tension and she feels the urge to wipe her mouth. She looks away in disgust and draws her head back as far as she can. He leans even closer so that his hot breath crawls on her face and neck. “Are you scared of me, pretty girl?”

Azumi turns back to glare at the sharp red pair of eyes. “No,” she spits out.

The man merely laughs at her retaliation and stands up straight.

“Don’t try to lie to me girl, I live off fear,” he jeers. His voice no longer radiating the sharp tone he entered with, but now into a deep hoarse tone. The hair at her nape sticks up from his dark statement.

In a blink of an eye, he suddenly lights up again as he casually leans back against the table, twirling her knives again. His voice returns to the brighter sharp tone, “Is it possible that you know me already?”

Azumi really wished she didn’t know him already. She spent hours studying Sugawara’s documents. She could identify this distinctive man anywhere. She would never forget the bright red hair and delirious smile.

“Maybe you know me by my other name…” He stops weaving the knives between his fingers and gives her a cold glare. His mouth slowly widens into a sickening smile. “The Joker?”

Azumi isn’t able to repress her shudder as she stares back into his eyes.

Tendou Satori, known for brutally murdering his targets after playing a “game” with them. Born with a twisted mind, he is also gifted with advanced analytical skills and animal-like instincts. He’s able to read his enemies so precisely that no one is ever able to sneak by under his nose.

Azumi bites her tongue in frustration. Tendou sniffed her out so easily.

He breaks out into a hysterical laugh at Azumi’s apparent fear. “So, you do know me!”

Azumi keeps her mouth shut and glares at him instead. She can’t be weak right now.

“Hmm… really trying to put on a brave face for me, aren’t you? I’m flattered!”

He suddenly stabs the table with her knives out of excitement. The sound startles Azumi and it makes her jolt in her seat.

“You seem fun! Why don’t we play a little game – I ask you a question, you ask me a question. If you’re lying, I’ll stab you with one of your own knives!” He excitedly grins at her, as if it was the best idea he’s ever thought of.

Azumi eyes her knives piercing the table and she feels her stomach drop. _This is really, really fucked up._

She bites the inside of her cheek and considers the proposition. Would she be more messed up if she agreed to the game? Does she even have an option to decline?

“How do I know you won’t lie to me?”

“Lie??” Tendou’s eyes widen and his high-pitched laugh makes her ears ring again. “What’s the fun in lying?”

His laugh makes her shiver. She really doesn’t want to be on his long list of victims.

“Is it wise to reveal information about ourselves, Tendou-sama?”

Azumi is startled by the voice, forgetting that Bobata was still in the room. Based on how hesitant he asks Tendou, she knows he’s also scared of him.

“Oh, loosen up Bobata. We’re just trying to have a good time over here!”

Azumi knows this is a prime opportunity for her to gather as much intel as she can, but she also couldn’t risk revealing too much about Karasuno. _High risk, high reward… There’s no way I can pass this up._ She bites her lip and her brows furrow. _That piece of shit Tsukishima better find me ASAP or I’ll be filled with holes._

She nods in the most confident way she can muster.

Tendou laughs as he drags a chair over and sits in front of her, his knees almost grazing her own. He rests his chin in his palm as the other hand drums on his thighs.

“Hm, we’ll start with something easy…” He turns to pull a knife out of the table and begins to twirl it in his hands again. “Who are you?”

Azumi is terrified of Tendou but she finds it in her to not answer immediately. She knows he might sniff out Sato and Tsukishima eventually, but she has to protect them for as long as she can. She’s going to be filled with holes anyways, she can at least give him a hard time. She maintains her glare.

“Oh, it’s no fun if I’m the only one playing, missy.”

Azumi’s head suddenly snaps to the side and her cheek blows up in pain. She grunts from the punch to her cheek and feels it immediately swelling. Her vision is filled with stars as she tries to collect herself.

“Now is not the time _“Ms. Nakada”._ Tell us your real name.”

Head still thrown to the side, she spits out some blood. “Azumi,” she mutters.

A hand aggressively grabs her face and she’s left glaring at Bobata’s angry one. “Your full name, you bitch!”

Azumi tries to resist the hand by looking at Tendou with a fierce scowl. “Azumi Mizuki,” she spits out.

Tendou’s face brightens at her obedience. “It sounds familiar… But I’m not sure why since I don’t recognize your face at all.” He uses her knife and lightly traces her thigh. It makes her jump and repulsed at the sensation. “Since you answered my question, you now have the chance to ask me anything,” he grins.

Azumi’s mind whirls with too many thoughts and questions but she tries not to take too long. She doesn’t want him to change his mind about answering her question. “Is Shiratorizowa working with Johzenji?”

“Ooo, cutting right into it aren’t you, Azumi-chan?” He laughs his ear-piercing laugh. “Yes,” he says simply, nonchalantly twirling the knives again.

This was bad. Azumi remembers Sugawara explaining all the reasons why it would be a terrible situation if Shiratorizowa and Johzenji started working together. Especially because of this new drug circulating. Everything was progressing faster than they expected.

“My turn!” Tendou almost laughs. “Who are you working for?”

Azumi bites her tongue. It’s okay that she let her name slip but compromising her team would come back to bite her. She would be putting everyone in danger.

She narrows her eyes and maintains her defiant glare. She’s going to try the best she can to appear strong, even if everything inside her was shaking with fear. She really hates being so weak.

“Oh? No response so soon? I gave you a pass earlier for trying not to give up your name.” She eyes the twirling knives. It was really hard to focus on it after getting punched so aggressively. Her head was pounding still, and it made it hard for her to concentrate on anything.

He leans in close to her again, “You still don’t want to tell me?”

Azumi tells herself that knowing that Shiratorizowa and Johzenji are working together is enough information to pass on, if she even makes it alive out of here to do that. A part of her prays that her earpiece is picking up their conversation based on how close Tendou is sitting, but the other part of her is praying she’d be able to live to pass on the message. _Persevere, Mizuki._

Tendou leans back in his chair before getting up. “Hmm, loyal but stupid I must say.”

Before Azumi is even able to process the swing of his arm, her knife breaks through her skin and her right thigh explodes in pain. She isn’t able to hear, see or feel anything else. She doesn’t even know if she’s screaming. All she knows is pain.

When she comes to, her throat is hoarse, and she pants heavily. Beads of sweat drip down her face and she shudders. Her hands are shaking so aggressively within her restraints that her wrists were raw, on the verge of bleeding. _I guess I was screaming._

She breathes deeply, hoping to have control over at least one thing in her body. Surprisingly, she doesn’t feel a panic attack coming despite all the fear and pain she’s experiencing. She feels sweat drip down her forehead onto her lap. She smells the pungent scent of salty sweat and metallic blood.

She looks at her thigh. The knife she kept strapped to her forearm was now embedded to the hilt in her leg. It doesn’t feel like she’s even looking at her own leg anymore. The throbbing pain reminds her otherwise.

Her eyes dart to her covered rib. She remembers the way the little crow contrasts her pale skin and she looks at it hoping it’ll give her strength. It reminds her who she’s fighting for. It reminds her who she’s protecting.

“Well, I have to admit I do like the feel of your knives, Azumi-chan! How they glide through flesh so smoothly excites me,” he grins. “Tell me who you’re working for or I’ll start to drag the knife.”

Azumi doesn’t look up and tries to continue focusing on her breathing. She tries to prepare herself for the next phase. Tendou grabs the handle and leans in, “What will it be Azumi-chan?”

His low voice makes her shudder. Soon after, she releases an ear-splitting scream. This time, she’s able to hear herself and it’s a sound she’s never heard herself make. She vaguely feels sweat, tears or saliva drip down her chin, she’s not sure which one it is. She feels her head spinning and her consciousness slipping. The pulsing in her thigh now spreading throughout her body. Her head drops and her chest heaves from the strain.

“I really do like how easily your knife slips right in. Though I think I was too excited with my first swing that I pierced the chair too,” he chuckles. He grabs her leg, causing Azumi to jerk in the chair. “Who are you working for?”

Azumi finds it harder and harder to stay conscious. She feels rough fingers tilt her chin up so that she’s forced to look into those red, lunatic eyes. She doesn’t have enough energy left in her to glare. She feels her will for defiance slip away. She’s once again reminded of how weak she is.

The hand on her leg travels to her wound and she feels his long fingers dig into the gash. She lets out a whimper and tears spill from her eyes. She hears the sound of blood spurting from her wound and the salty scent of iron reaches her nose once more.

Even though she knew it was her imagination, she could feel her ribs burn. She envisions a fire iron burning the skin off her ribs as she admits defeat. Her voice comes out in a quiet whimper.

“Karasuno.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> eeee i felt uncomfortable writing this torture scene... i honestly love how much of a softie tendou is in canon but cmon, he's also the best villain haha


	10. My Fault

Tsukishima bumps into multiple people as he aggressively weaves through crowds and slot machines trying to spot the woman with long black hair. Unfortunately for him, many women have the same long black hair.

“Tch.” It wasn’t like him to mess up. It wasn’t like him to be careless. He ran perfect missions all the time. It was for that reason that he was named Karasuno’s Moon, the force governing the night skies.

Tsukishima was going to check the whole floor twice before he was going to admit he lost Azumi. He really didn’t want to admit he fucked up. _If she wasn’t so careless and didn’t run off with the dirty man, I wouldn’t be in this situation right now,_ he mentally snarled.

His searching was at first nonchalant, pretending he was simply looking for his date who strayed off a little too far. After ten minutes of searching, it became more desperate. People were starting to look at him in annoyance as he pushed past people, spilling drinks and stepping on feet. He had stopped hearing her voice through the earpiece for a while now and silence was never a good sign.

“We have a problem,” he finally grumbles, admitting his search was helpless.

“What’s the matter?” Ennoshita responds.

“I lost Azumi, I mean Arrow. Whatever she’s called.” The given situation made him forget to follow protocol where they’re not allowed to use their real names on missions. “Ugh, it doesn’t matter,” he growls. “I lost her and I’ve searched the floor. I haven’t heard her in the earpiece either. I don’t know where she went.” He already made two laps around the venue and found himself back near Sato’s table. She looks at him with a raised eyebrow, fiercely containing her anger. She had left Azumi in his hands and he messed up.

“Let me take a look,” Ennoshita quickly replies.

Ennoshita’s silence makes Tsukishima even more irritated. He usually loves silence. He loves not having people annoy him with whatever they had to say. Now, ironically the silence makes him extremely agitated. He would really appreciate it if the idiot could say anything right about now. Even something stupid would suffice.

“I don’t see her on the main area, nor do I see her in the private rooms on the first floor. I can’t get access to the higher floors, so you’ll have to do a search. Han, come inside and help Moon search. Moon, do not head upstairs until Han joins you. Cobra, keep engaging Terushima. The main mission is still to gain intel. You will disengage upon my command if necessary.”

“Tch.” _This mission is really becoming a nuisance. I knew it was a bad sign when Azumi clammed up. She was an idiot for not notifying me before changing her position, as per protocol._ Suddenly, he hears garbled speech quietly radiate through his earpiece. He freezes instantly recognizing the voice despite its’ lack of words.

“Arrow, is that you? Where are you right now?” The sound of Ennoshita’s almost desperate voice makes Tsukishima uncomfortable. She couldn’t have wound up in that bad of a situation, right?

They all wait to hear something, but there’s no response. The silence further spoils Tsukishima’s mood. He really wanted another drink right about now, but he knew he has to stay focused for what is to come. He pulls out a cigarette instead and returns the cold glare back at Sato. He knew she was rightfully mad, but it still pissed him off since it wasn’t completely his fault. He storms off and waits for Yamaguchi at the entrance to the lobby.

“Moon, remember to wait for Han. We don’t know how many we’re fighting against right now,” Ennoshita sternly commands.

Tsukishima simply grunts in response as he leans against a pillar. He watches people enter and exit the main playing area and blows out a puff of smoke. He grips his own arm tightly attempting to hide his irritation. _Why is Yamaguchi taking so long to get here? It wasn’t that long of a walk_ , he scoffs.

His blood runs cold when he hears the familiar voice again in his earpiece. This time, it was an ear-piercing scream, forcing him to clutch his throbbing ear. He’s heard people scream before, but he never thought he’d hear something so agonizing, desperate and helpless from her. He never thought that the girl he’s always teased could make a sound like that. _This was bad… really bad._

He aggressively tosses his cigarette into the ash tray and ignores Ennoshita’s barking orders telling him to wait. Right now, he doesn’t care about anything else.

He needs to find her.

\--

“Karasuno, huh? The new, small yakuza group is now trying to fight with the big boys?” Tendou chuckles as he removes his hand from Azumi’s leg and wipes her blood onto her dress. He sits back down into his chair, very content that he got an answer. He eyes his fingernails absentmindedly. “Guess we can’t leave a blind eye to you anymore,” he says with a snicker.

Azumi really hated herself right now. She spent all those gruesome hours of training just to get her here, whimpering to the man who will enjoy dragging out her death. She managed to get herself caught and now she personally added Karasuno onto one of the big four’s hit list. Her new family was going to get picked off one by one.

“Well, thanks for your honesty Azumi-chan. Now you get to ask me a question!”

Having just been punched and stabbed, Azumi forgets they’re playing a “game” and that she actually has a turn. She wracks her brain thinking of a useful question. This would be a prime opportunity for Ennoshita to chime in and help her out, but her stupid earpiece was in her hair instead of her ear. She also thinks about prolonging her turn, knowing that she’ll have to resist whatever question he asks next.

However, she knows this is an opportunity she can’t pass up. Asking an unhinged high-ranking member in Shiratorizowa provides her a chance to get some real answers. What could she ask?

She jolts in her seat in response to the knock on the door. Tendou raises an eyebrow but doesn’t shift. Bobata approaches the door and slightly opens it, whispering to their visitor. He turns to look at Tendou.

“It’s time for your next one, Tendou-sama.”

_Next what? Next person to torture?_

“Bring it in,” Tendou instructs.

“Are you sure?” Bobata’s eyes nervously dart to Azumi. “She’ll be able to see it.”

This immediately piques Azumi’s interests. She was going to find out about something without needing to use up her turn.

“That’s twice now that you’ve questioned me, Bobata,” Tendou’s voice dropping into a low harsh tone as he shakes his head. “My patience only runs so thin. Bring it in like I’ve asked.”

Bobata visibly stiffens and he gulps. He gestures for the visitor to enter.

Azumi doesn’t recognize the timid, petite man who walks in. He bows deeply when he’s in front of Tendou and spares a quick glance at Azumi. She notices his nose wrinkle at the scent she radiates.

He places a bag onto the gambling table and carefully unzips it. Tendou gets up from his seat to stand by the table. Azumi can’t tell if it’s on purpose but from where he’s standing, it obstructs her view of the contents within the bag. She tries to lean to the side to get a better view but the knife in her leg warns her otherwise. With a grimace, she returns to her original position.

\--

Tendou excitedly watches the petite man withdraw what his body’s been craving from the bag. He salivates as he watches him unwrap the plastic covering and turns to allow the man easier access to his arm. He rolls up his sleeve and boggles at the needle the man is holding.

Tendou starts to feel jumpy in anticipation of receiving another dose of the energizing drug. He notices Azumi staring in awe and smirks at the way her mouth gapes in surprise. _This must be what you’re looking for, isn’t it?_

He knows anybody of their right mind would never let their enemies have a chance to see this. Luckily for his prey, he isn’t someone of their right mind.

Tendou lets the man insert the needle and watches intently as he presses down on the syringe. He shivers feeling the immediate rush of energy. His smirk becomes a grin as he feels his blood pumping more rapidly and forcefully through his arms and legs. His head clears of any distractions and he feels like he could do anything.

He’ll never get sick of this feeling.

\--

Azumi peels her eyes away from the pulsing of Tendou’s arm to watch his face. As she was informed, the drug is a stimulant that enhances energy levels, alertness and attention. She didn’t realize the effects would be so immediate. Even from where she was sitting, she could see his veins bulge in his forearms. She could see Tendou tremble from the surge of energy.

_Why is he letting me see this? Is he not afraid that I’ll know too much about the drug? Or does he not intend to let me leave here alive?_

Tendou turns to gloat at Azumi’s reaction. He can tell her brain is whirling with so many questions that she might even pass out.

“This gives me an extra kick so that I can enjoy your screams even more,” he grins.

The look on Azumi’s face reflects disgust but also horror. Her words slip out before she gets a chance to seriously consider the turn she’s using.

“Why are you showing me this?”

Tendou pauses as he rolls his sleeve back down. He hums a short tune that Azumi doesn’t recognize and reaches out his hand to the petite man.

“Why, I thought I’d be kind by letting you see a glimpse of the treat I’ll be giving you,” he grins as his eyes quickly flick to her serious face.

Azumi freezes when she manages to process the meaning of his words. She’s going to be getting a dose of that dangerous drug and she has no idea how her body will react. She remembers Sugawara mentioning that just one dose is enough to cause her body to crave another dose. She isn’t exactly the best candidate to be trying drugs, especially if she’s already taking pills for her anxiety.

To her surprise, the petite man places a small white object into Tendou’s hand. She tucks her worries aside as she focuses on it, realizing that it’s a pill. _This_ , she did not anything know about. She wasn’t told that there’s a complementing pill with the new stimulant. What could it possibly do?

Azumi carefully watches the pill disappear into Tendou’s mouth as he dry swallows the pill with a smile. This time, she isn’t able to assume what it does. Tendou doesn’t react any differently than his usual unhinged self. His lack of response to this new mysterious drug makes it impossible for her to guess what it does. Azumi internally grumbles regretting that she wasted her previous question.

Her thoughts are disrupted when she hears the familiar crinkling of plastic. The petite man pulls out another needle and she sees liquid squirt out of its end.

“Well, aren’t you glad I like to share?” Tendou chuckles as he takes his seat in front of Azumi again, especially eager to see her reaction. His eyes widen while his smile stretches widely across his face. His eyes fix on her horrified face, making sure he’s able to enjoy every second.

The petite man begins to approach her, and she feels the urge to break out of her restraints. She realizes her fighting is helpless, but she’s desperate to avoid having the drug injected. Fear begins to course through her body and all her senses begin to numb as she watches the needle approach her arm. She vaguely hears Tendou’s hysterical laughing as he relishes in the amount of fear she isn’t able to contain.

She feels the sharp sting of the needle and then everything she could possibly feel is enhanced. Her body immediately reacts to the foreign fluid and her body burns up. She feels energized, as if she fought any harder, she could break away from her restraints. If she could break free, she has the energy to take everyone who stands up against her.

She also feels her nerves becoming more and more sensitized. Her leg flares up in agonizing pain. She’s able to feel the details of the knife in her leg. The way her muscles and blood vessels desperately clung to the face of the blade to slow down the bleeding but also the way the sharp edges threatened to split more of her leg. The initial pain of being stabbed was on an infinite loop and all she could do was cry in pain.

Her eyes dart around the room, rapidly focusing on features she didn’t previously notice. She notices the dim lightbulb flicker every so often, the dark red shade of carpet, the marks on the floor due to chairs being dragged around the room.

At some point, she’s able to hear Tendou’s laughing again and she does everything she can to focus on his voice instead of her leg. She finds the task become surprisingly easy. It was like if she spared enough thought on something, she’d be able to forget everything else. Although her leg still flares up in pain, she’s able to focus on Tendou and his features. The way the edges of his eyes wrinkle, how his sharp nose points upwards and how the folds in his face emphasize his smile. He finally stops laughing and leans in close.

“Unfortunately for you Azumi-chan, I won’t be forcing the pill down your throat. It’ll just be counterproductive to the joy the knife brings to your leg!”

Azumi doesn’t see the petite man exit with his bag. She also doesn’t see the men who replace him and spread out within the room.

Her eyes are fixed on her hands. The overwhelming amount of energy causes Azumi to tremble. Her hands begin to shake uncontrollably, not being able to adapt to the drastic change. Tendou looks down at her hands in amusement, and it isn’t until now that he notices the scar on the back of her left hand.

“Ooo, it looks like that hand of yours holds some precious memories!”

Azumi immediately tries to jerk her hand back but is unsuccessful.

“Back to our game…” Tendou hums as he brainstorms his next question. “Who did you come here with?”

Azumi’s breath hitches. She immediately thinks of Sato’s, Tsukishima’s and Yamaguchi’s faces. She recalls her conversation with Sato. _I trust you with my life. All of us do._ She feels goosebumps rise on her arms as she recalls the memory. She might’ve messed up, but she wasn’t going to bring her team down with her. She can’t be the dead weight to the team.

“I won’t tell you.”

Tendou is visibly pleased by her response. It was a win-win situation for him. He loves it when his victims are trembling in fear. When they’re scared enough, they’ll reveal everything they know. He also loves it when his victims are defiant. He really doesn’t get that many of those anymore after building the reputation he has for himself. But defiance means pain and hearing painful screams. They’re all just so energizing for him.

“Y’know, you’re just asking for your hand to be stabbed again,” he shrugs.

Azumi recalls the first time her hand was pierced by a blade and it makes her shudder. She remembers the frustration and pain that came with rehabilitation. However, the painful memories aren’t going to be as painful as the feelings of disappointment if she betrays her team. That would be worse, she decides.

“I’ll go slow this time, so you can feel every inch of your beautiful blade. The feeling will be quite exquisite,” he jeers.

She feels the blade break her skin and she releases a deafening scream. She didn’t think it was possible, but the pain was magnified five times over compared to the first time. The blade stops moving and it gives her a moment to heave. She realizes the overly sensitized feeling was due to the effects of the drug.

“Now, tell me. Which friends did you bring with you today?”

Azumi finds herself unable to speak. The pain in her hand and leg pulse violently and she is unable to focus on anything else. She can vaguely hear Tendou’s voice, but she isn’t able to make out what he’s saying.

He takes her silence as a cue to proceed, so he slides the blade deeper into her hand. She’s not sure how she’s able to scream again due to her hoarse throat, but she does. She feels her muscles split and tendons snap. She could feel everything in hand come apart in slow motion.

The energy surge she had from the injection fades away all too quickly. All she feels is the excruciating pain from the knives embedded in her body. She feels immediately defeated and exhausted. It’s just her hand and leg, but she feels like she can’t handle it anymore. She just wants it to end.

If she could give someone’s name up right now, who would be able to defend themselves if they were caught? Azumi thinks about the strongest person she knows. She thinks about the person who trusts Azumi with her life. _I trust you to save your own life…_

She mutters something incoherently under her breath.

Tendou still maintaining his hold on the knife, leans in and lowers his head to look up at Azumi’s downcast face. He grabs her chin and lifts it, forcing her to look up at his smiling face. Her lips barely move as she mumbles defeatedly.

“Sato.”

Tendou’s face brightens as he releases the hold on her chin. “Now that name I do know. Sato of Karasuno… She’s definitely a charmer and extremely sneaky. She could probably slip by even my nose,” he chuckles.

As soon as he finishes his statement, a gunshot is heard from outside the room. It startles everyone causing Tendou to quickly remove the knife embedded in her hand when he jerks to take a step back. The door is broken in and a familiar blonde man storms in with Sato.

“Speak of the devil,” Tendou mutters.

Tsukishima and Sato lock eyes with a smirking Tendo before the Johzenji men attack them. Sato swiftly swings her leg at a man’s hand before he is able to fire at her, successfully knocking the gun out of his hand. She then fires at his forehead and kicks his body to the ground before turning to shoot the next man who charges at her.

Tsukishima fights off two men at a time, unable to finish them off quickly as their timed attack gives them an opportunity to disarm him. He clicks his tongue when he notes their superhuman strength matching the numerous men they had difficulty taking down on their way here. He slowly gets pushed back defending each of their repeated blows until he finally manages to take the offensive when he finds an opening. Just because they have superior strength, doesn’t mean they’re more skilled fighters.

After adapting to his opponents’ fighting patterns, he anticipates a predictable blow to the face and stops it by grabbing his attacker’s forearm. He pulls the startled man towards him and kicks his knee hard enough to hear an audible crack. He throws the man onto the ground before swerving to his right to dodge another swing to his face. He counters it by grabbing the man’s head and bashing it into the table. Even if they’re unusually strong, he’s still the bigger and smarter fighter.

He quickly crouches to dodge the bullets that whizz by the top of his head, hands scrambling across the floor to find his gun.

“You get her. I can handle them here, but I won’t be able to if I’m carrying her,” Sato instructs in between blows. She dodges a blow to the face that ends up creating a large hole in the wall. The man is startled when he realizes his hand is encased in the wall, creating an opportunity for Sato to bash her gun into the back of her attacker’s head.

Although Tsukishima hates receiving instructions from people who aren’t his boss, he complies without raising an argument. He compares their paths to the bloody girl and realizes he has the clearer path to her anyways. He grabs his gun and stands up in a crouch to shoot the two men closest to him in the forehead. He strides over their bodies and quickly reloads. He glances over his shoulder and clicks his tongue when he sees more Johzenji men enter the room. The numbers probably overwhelming only one Yamaguchi who’s trying to hold off as many as possible in the hallway.

He sighs in annoyance and looks toward his final target, blocking his path to Azumi. He locks eyes with Bobata and fires at the glaring man before he has a chance to even raise his gun at Tsukishima. _The bastard got an easier death than he deserves._ He steps over another body and realizes Tendou is nowhere to be seen. The red-haired psychopath is no longer in front of Azumi nor is he one of the bodies that Sato has been piling up on her side of the room.

\--

Azumi tiredly watches the fight in front of her unfold. The chaos of the scene makes it hard for her to focus on anything. She finds her eyes following the blonde head of hair making his way across the room. He swiftly takes down his attackers with the same scowl she’s familiar with. Her eyes start to flutter and she fiercely tells herself to stay awake. It occurs to her that blood is pooling on her hand when she glances down at it. Her eyes dart between the hole in her hand and the embedded knife in her leg. The horror of her body’s condition finally hits her, and she starts to hyperventilate.

Azumi doesn’t notice the sly brown-haired man fall to the ground in front of her. Her hands shake in their restraints and her chest tightens. Her vision starts to tunnel, her pierced leg being the only thing she sees. She’s startled when a blonde figure kneels in front of her and his golden-brown eyes look up at her in concern.

“Hey, we’re here for you, you idiot.”

Azumi doesn’t notice how tender his words sound despite the offensive title and just focuses on the large eyes staring back at her. She feels his large, rough hand hesitantly grasp her own small one as he awkwardly tries to says more gentle words she’s never heard him say before. He coaxes her to control her breathing as he grips her hand tighter and rubs the back of her hand with his thumb. She doesn’t notice how the kind words slip out of his mouth more easily the more he speaks. Her breaths begin to slow as each one takes longer than the next. She focuses on his unwavering eyes, ignoring the tears welling up in hers.

When she comes to, Tsukishima hesitantly removes his hand from hers. As if the scene never happened, his tender eyes quickly narrow as they dart between her stabbed leg and her bloody hand. He pulls out a knife from the inside of his jacket and quickly severs the restraints holding her hands and legs to the chair.

“Anytime now, you bastard!” Sato shouts with a grunt, having kicked down another large man.

Tsukishima clicks his tongue as he quickly wraps Azumi’s hand. Feeling like she’s in a daze, she simply watches and grimaces when he tends to her wounds. When he finishes wrapping, he looks down at the knife embedded in her thigh with furrowed brows.

“I’m going to leave the knife inside to reduce bleed out,” he says determinedly, looking up at Azumi.

Azumi shudders. “I think the knife went through the chair,” she admits quietly.

Tsukishima sighs. “You got to be fucking kidding me.”

He quickly tears his shirt and grips the knife in her leg. Azumi grits her teeth in anticipation focusing on the way Tsukishima’s sharp jaw is working. He makes eye contact with her and she nods weakly. He pulls out the knife and Azumi screams. Despite bracing for the pain, she forgets that the drug enhances her sensitivity, and therefore her pain. He hurriedly ties the torn piece of fabric tightly around her wound and quickly slides his arms under her knees and around her back.

It’s only now that Azumi notices the stacks of bodies piling up around the room from Sato’s swift work. She kicks the last man in the chest and shoots him in the head during his descent. Tsukishima makes his way around the table and Sato rushes to her side, her intense face instantly softening as she quickly brushes the hair off Azumi’s tired face.

“Oh Zuzu,” she coos apologetically.

Tsukishima leans slightly into the hallway catching sight of a fighting Yamaguchi.

“Let’s go!”

Yamaguchi turns and nods as he leads the way to make their exit. Sato trails behind Tsukishima making sure that their attackers don’t get a chance to follow them. They weave through a series of hallways and rush down several sets of stairs. They make it back into the casino’s most populated area and are forced to push pass people aggressively. Azumi feels her feet clip people’s shoulders and elbows, grimacing at how the impact causes her thigh to flare up. She grips Tsukishima’s jacket tighter and burrows her face into his chest, not caring how it’ll irritate him.

\--

Tsukishima is thankful to feel the cool night air coat his cheeks when they finally exit the building. He follows closely behind Yamaguchi and doesn’t notice Sato trailing a bit further behind. He doesn’t realize their pursuers are following so closely behind him until he feels a bullet embed itself into his shoulder. He grunts and staggers in response but continues running, ignoring Azumi’s look of horror.

To his favor, his offender is shot down by Sato as she manages to catch up to the two long-legged men. Tsukishima tch’s when he notes that the bullet never left his body. He tells himself not to think about the pain or the damage the little thing can cause inside of him. He sees their car and it gives him an extra boost of energy as he increases the length between his strides. He quickly glances over his shoulder and is relieved to see Sato following closely and their pursuers much further away.

He winces as he bends down to open the car door and opts to enter the backseat together with Azumi who continues to cling onto his jacket desperately. It isn’t until Yamaguchi has steered them out of the city that he notices Azumi weeping, repeating the same words.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. It’s all my fault. It’s all my fault.”


End file.
